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)t  Korean  Conspiracy  Case" 


ARTHUR  JUDSON  BROWN 


“THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE” 


BY 

ARTHUR  JUDSON  BROWN 


¥ 


156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 
November  20,  1912 


NORTH  FI  ELD  PRESS 
NORTHFIELD.  MASS 


FOREWORD 


This  paper  is  the  outcome  of  a conference  of  representatives  of  all  the  mis- 
sionary organizations  of  the  United  States  which  are  conducting  work  in  Korea 
(Japanese  Chosen)  with  several  eminent  laymen  who  are  not  connected  with  these 
organizations  and  whose  counsel  was  sought  because  their  international  reputation 
and  their  detachment  from  the  missionary  interests  that  are  immediately  involved 
fitted  them  to  give  dispassionate  advice.  These  gentlemen  highly  approved  the  course 
taken  by  the  Boards  thus  far,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  appeal  of  the 
convicted  Koreans  to  the  Appellate  Court  was  desirable  in  the  interests  of  Koreans 
and  Japanese  alike.  They  also  felt  that  while  the  reticence  of  the  Boards  had  been 
most  commendable,  public  interest  in  the  question  had  become  so  general  that  some 
statement  should  now  be  made  in  order  that  the  point  of  view  of  the  Boards  might 
be  more  fully  understood  and  that  certain  factors  in  the  situation  might  be  empha- 
sized which  would  correct  some  misapprehensions  and  aid  in  forming  a public 
opinion  Avhich  would  not  do  injustice  to  the  various  parties  that  are  involved.  The 
missionary  organizations  referred  to  are:  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  The  Board  of  Mis- 
sions of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  810  Broadway,  Nashville,  Tenn., 
The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  156 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  The  Executive  Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  (South),  First  National  Bank  Building,  Nash- 
ville, Tenn.,  The  American  Bible  Society,  Bible  House,  New  York,  and  The  Inter- 
national Committee  of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  124  East  28th 
Street,  New  York.  The  article  has  been  read  in  manuscript  or  proof  by  one  or 
more  Secretaries  of  each  of  these  organizations  and,  in  its  present  form,  embodies 
the  changes  which  they  suggested  in  the  original  text.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
article  has  been  officially  adopted  by  their  Societies  or  that  any  other  Secretary 
would  have  used  precisely  the  same  language.  The  article  is  intended  to  be  gen- 
erally representative  of  the  position  of  the  missionary  organizations  and  their 
constituencies  as  the  author  understands  it ; but  he  accepts  sole  responsibility  for 
its  scope  and  form  and  for  any  errors  or  misunderstandings.  He  has  tried  to  feel 
his  way  through  a very  large  and  complicated  situation — a maze  of  conflicting 
facts,  motives,  interests  and  prejudices,  affecting  political,  judicial,  educational, 
religious  and  racial  problems,  some  of  which  are  international  in  scope  and  gravity. 
He  can  not  venture  to  hope  that  he  has  succeeded  to  the  full  satisfaction  of  any  one 
else,  as  he  certainly  has  not  succeeded  to  his  own.  He  therefore  not  only  expects 
but  he  will  be  grateful  for  constructive  criticism  alike  from  American,  Japanese 
and  Korean  sources.  He  only  asks  that  the  article  be  interpreted  by  the  three 
considerations  which  have  determined  his  point  of  view:  First,  deep  solicitude 

for  the  situation  in  Korea:  second,  a relationship  to  the  interests  affected  which 
creates  a moral  obligation  to  discuss  that  situation;  third,  belief  that  the  Japanese 
Government  and  people  earnestly  desire  to  deal  fairly  with  the  Koreans  so  that  we 
may  confidently  expect  them  to  see  that  justice  will  eventually  be  done. 


“THE  KOREAN  CONSPIRACY  CASE” 


The  interest  of  the  civilized  world  has  been  aroused  by  the  difficulties  that  have 
developed  in  Korea  (Japanese  Chosen)  and  which  have  culminated  in  the  arrest, 
trial  and  conviction  of  a large  number  of  Korean  Christians  on  a charge  of  con- 
spiring to  assassinate  Count  Terauchi,  the  Governor  General.  The  circumstances 
raise  some  grave  questions  in  which  western  peoples  are  deeply  concerned.  It  is 
true  that  from  the  viewpoint  of  international  law  and  diplomatic  intercourse, 
these  questions  primarily  relate  to  Japan’s  treatment  of  her  own  subjects;  but  it  is 
also  true  that  it  may  be  said  of  nations,  as  of  individuals,  that  “none  of  us  liveth 
to  himself.”  Mankind  has  passed  the  stage  where  it  is  indifferent  to  what  any 
Government  does  to  a subject  race.  The  course  of  the  Belgians  in  the  Congo  Free 
State,  the  French  in  Madagascar,  the  Americans  in  the  Philippines,  the  British  in 
India  and  the  Japanese  in  Korea,  is  of  international  concern.  We  freely  recognize 
the  right  of  other  peoples  to  discuss  our  treatment  of  the  Filipinos,  and  that  the 
Japanese  recognize  the  right  of  others  to  discuss  their  methods  in  Korea  is  shown 
by  the  excellent  reports  which  they  have  published  in  English  and  by  the  Bureau 
of  Information  which  they  maintain  in  New  York. 

Various  accounts  and  interpretations  of  the  present  trouble  in  Korea  have 
been  published,  some  of  them  quite  unjust  and  incorrect,  but  others  giving  a fairly 
accurate  general  impression.  The  Boards  of  Missions  have  received  a large  amount 
of  information  from  reliable  sources,  but  they  were  slow  to  make  any  public  state- 
ment, for  their  rule  is  not  to  rush  into  print  in  such  cases.  As  for  our  own  Gov- 
ernment, we  have  not  asked  it  to  act  nor  have  we  ever  thought  of  doing  so.  It 
has  indeed  been  urged  that  the  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Korea  pro- 
vided that  “if  other  Powers  deal  unjustly  or  oppressively  with  either  Government, 
the  other  will  exert  their  good  offices,  on  being  informed  of  the  case,  to  bring  about 
an  amicable  arrangement,”  and  that  although  Japan,  in  promulgating  the  treaty  of 
annexation,  accompanied  it  with  a declaration  that  the  treaties  concluded  by  Korea 
with  foreign  Powers  ceased  to  be  binding,  this  treaty  has  never  been  specifically 
abrogated  by  the  United  States.  This  is  a rather  doubtful  and  technical  question 
of  international  law  which  has  been  made  extremely  shadowy  by  the  practical 
acquiescence  of  the  American  Government  in  the  Japanese  annexation  of  Korea. 
Apart  from  this,  however,  there  are  many  precedents  for  remonstrance  in 
the  protests  which  England  and  America  have  made  at  various  times  in 
behalf  of  subject  peoples,  as  for  example,  the  Armenians,  the  Congo  tribes, 
and  more  recently  the  Putumayo  Indians  of  Peru.  Moreover,  the  rights  of 
American  citizens  are  involved  in  Korea  in  that  they  have  been  implicated  in  a con- 
spiracy against  a foreign  government  and  denied  opportunity  to  clear  themselves 
of  an  accusation  which  seriously  jeopardizes  their  standing  and  the  interests  which 
they  have  lawfully  acquired.  But  the  Mission  Boards  from  the  beginning  have 
handled  the  pending  question  from  the  viewpoint  not  only  of  profound  concern 
for  the  situation  in  Korea  but  of  absolute  confidence  that  the  Government  and 


1 


people  of  Japan  intended  to  do  what  was  right  and  that  they  could  be  relied  upon 
to  do  it.  Independently,  therefore,  of  the  question  whether  our  Government  would 
be  likely  to  intervene  between  the  Government  of  Japan  and  its  Korean  subjects, 
the  Boards  did  not  deem  it  wise  to  ask  the  Department  of  State  to  deal  with  a 
matter  which,  at  its  present  stage,  should  be  taken  up  with  the  Japanese  them- 
selves. As  friends  of  Japan  for  many  years  and  with  a knowledge  of  its  people 
acquired  by  half  a century’s  missionary  work  in  it,  we  were  not  willing  to  assume 
that  its  Government  had  ordered  or  would  approve  such  a course  as  its  gendarmes 
seem  to  have  adopted  in  Korea.  We  regarded  the  Japanese  officials  as  intel- 
ligent and  fair-minded  men  who  would  be  more  apt  to  handle  the  matter  effectively 
if  they  were  not  embarrassed  by  pressure  from  another  Government,  whose  juris- 
diction they  would  hardly  admit  in  a matter  of  this  kind.  We  therefore  went 
directly  to  the  Japanese  Embassy  in  Washington  and  talked  the  matter  over  in  the 
freedom  of  personal  conversation,  first  with  Mr.  Masanao  Hanihara,  First  Secre- 
tary and  at  that  time  (February,  1912),  Charge  d’Affaires,  and  later  with  His 
Excellency  Viscount  Chinda,  the  newly-appointed  Ambassador.  They  received  us 
most  cordially,  as  we  expected  them  to  do,  and  the  communications  that  we  sent 
in  writing  were  promptly  acknowledged.  The  Ambassador  has  shown  deep  in- 
terest in  the  matter  ever  since  his  arrival.  He  is  an  able  and  broad-minded  diplomat, 
one  of  the  best  types  of  the  modern  Japanese.  He  could,  of  course,  only  accept 
our  statements  for  transmission  to  Tokyo,  and  in  turn  transmit  to  us  the  replies 
that  were  sent  to  him  by  the  Japanese  authorities  in  Korea  through  the  Foreign 
Office  in  Tokyo,  and  suggest  that,  as  the  matter  was  in  process  of  adjudication  by 
the  proper  legal  tribunals,  it  would  be  necessary  to  await  the  result.  Finally,  we 
felt  that  we  had  done  all  that  was  practicable  in  this  way.  Conditions  in  Korea 
grew  worse  and  became  public  through  other  channels,  as  was  inevitable  in  this 
age  of  travellers,  telegraphs  and  newspapers.  Now  we  must  deal  with  a rising 
public  sentiment  throughout  the  country,  and  face  insistent  questions  from  our 
constituencies  and  the  general  public  which  we  can  no  longer  avoid.  It  appeals 
wiser  to  state  our  views  in  this  full  and  open  way  and  to  send  copies  directly  to  the 
Japanese  Ambassador  in  Washington  as  well  as  to  others,  rather  than  to  attempt  to 
state  them  in  many  letters  and  interviews  which  would  be  necessarily  fragmentary 
and  liable  to  misconstruction. 

We  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  grave  international  consequences  which  may 
be  entailed.  The  Japanese  are  justly  sensitive  to  the  public  opinion  of  the  western 
world.  The  respect  and  sympathy  of  the  British  and  American  peoples  found 
frequent  expression  in  the  press  of  the  two  countries  during  the  Russia-Japan 
War  and  were  a national  asset  which  the  Japanese  highly  prized.  Anti-Japanese 
feeling  in  America  has  been  chiefly  confined  to  certain  classes  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  to  politicians  who  have  catered  to  their  votes.  It  will  be  a serious  thing,  and 
one  which  may  profoundly  affect  the  relations  of  America  and  Japan,  if  this  anti- 
Japanese  element  is  re-enforced  by  the  millions  of  intelligent  Americans  who  are 
interested  in  the  large  missionary  work  in  Korea  and  who,  whether  directly  related 
to  it  or  not,  have  come  to  regard  the  Koreans  as  a discouraged  people  who  are  now 
passing  through  a trying  transition  period  and  who  should  receive  considerate 
treatment. 


2 


The  Mission  Boards  have  not  approached  the  question  from  the  viewpoint  of 
anti-Japanese  feeling.  It  is  the  unvarying  policy  of  the  Boards  and  their  Missions 
loyally  to  accept  the  constituted  governments  of  the  countries  in  which  mission 
work  is  carried  on,  to  do  everything  in  their  power  to  keep  the  missionary  enter- 
prise free  from  political  movements,  to  avoid  any  interference  with  a govern- 
ment or  its  courts  of  justice  in  the  exercise  of  their  lawful  functions,  and  to  take 
up  any  question  of  relationship  to  a government,  not  through  the  diplomatic 
channels  of  the  American  Government  at  Washington,  but  directly  with  the 
authorities  of  the  Government  concerned,  as  was  done  in  this  case  by  the  mis- 
sionaries in  Korea  and  by  the  Boards  in  America.  If  men  who  call  themselves 
Christians  are  justly  accused  of  crime,  the  Missions  and  the  Boards  not  only  have 
no  desire  to  defend  them  but  believe  that  they  should  receive  the  proper  conse- 
quences of  their  acts.  We  saw  long  ago  that  the  independence  of  Korea  was 
impossible  and  that  the  only  practical  question  was  whether  Russia  or  Japan 
should  rule  the  country.  Americans  generally  believed  that  it  would  be  better  both 
for  Korea  and  for  the  world  that  Japan  should  dominate,  and  while  the  Boards  of 
course  remained  neutral  during  the  War,  when  Japan  was  victorious  they  freely 
used  whatever  influence  they  had  with  the  Koreans  to  induce  them  to  accept  the 
inevitable.  Our  opinions  on  this  subject  are  on  record  in  books  and  printed  reports 
and  articles.  Moreover,  all  the  Boards  that  have  missions  in  Korea  also  have  mis- 
sions in  Japan,  which  they  deem  quite  as  important  as  their  work  in  Korea.  They 
realize  that  the  ill  will  of  the  Government  would  be  a heavy  handicap  to  their  work 
in  both  Korea  and  Japan.  They  therefore  have  strong  motives  of  self-interest  as 
well  as  grounds  of  sentiment  and  conviction  for  maintaining  friendly  relations 
with  the  Japanese. 

The  situation  is  a complicated  one,  and  we  should  do  the  Japanese  the  justice 
of  attempting  to  understand  their  position.  Korea  is  the  most  exposed  part  of  the 
Japanese  Empire,  and  the  one  regarding  which  the  Japanese  are  most  sensitive. 
Close  to  the  Russian  base  at  Vladivostok,  bordering  Manchuria  and  only  a few 
hours  by  steamer  from  the  Chinese  port  of  Chefoo,  it  would  be  the  danger  zone  in 
case  of  international  complications.  It  is  to  the  present  advantage  of  Russia  and 
Japan  to  work  together,  and  it  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  the  present  relations  of 
amity  may  continue ; but  the  fundamental  causes  of  the  Russia-Japan  War 
still  exist.  There  are  many  who  believe  that  Russia  will  not  permanently 
acquiesce  in  a situation  which  denies  her  an  ice-free  port  on  the  open  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  that  sooner  or  later  Japan  will  have  to  fight  again.  It  is  equally  clear  that  if 
Japan  should  become  embroiled  with  China,  or  with  any  western  power,  Korea 
would  be  the  battle  ground,  as  it  has  been  in  every  war  that  Japan  has  ever  waged. 
The  attitude  of  the  Koreans  therefore  is  of  vital  importance  to  the  Japanese. 
While  they  are  not  strong  from  a military  point  of  view,  thirteen  millions  of 
sullen,  embittered  people  between  a Japanese  army  and  its  foreign  foe,  or  at  the 
rear  of  a Japanese  army  at  the  front,  would  be  a serious  menace. 

In  these  circumstances,  there  are  naturally  two  opinions  among  the  Japanese 
as  to  the  best  method  of  treating  the  Koreans.  The  civil  party  believes  that  a 
humane  and  enlightened  policy  is  not  only  the  best  for  the  Koreans  but  the  best 
for  the  Japanese,  as  it  would  conciliate  a people  who  have  for  centuries  feared 
and  distrusted  the  Japanese  and  would  tend  to  bind  them  to  their  new  rulers.  The 

3 


military  party  believes  that  the  Koreans  should  be  ruled  with  an  iron  hand,  and 
so  thoroughly  cowed  that  they  will  never  dare  to  assert  themselves  against  the 
Japanese.  The  words  civil  and  military  are  not  entirely  accurate  as  descriptive 
terms.  Some  civilians  advocate  the  stern  policy  and  some  army  officers  the 
humane;  but,  broadly  speaking,  the  terms  serve  to  indicate  the  line  of  cleavage 
between  the  two  parties. 

The  military  party  governed  Korea  immediately  after  the  Russia-Japan  War, 
and  its  inexorable  methods,  together  with  the  brutality  and  greed  of  a swarm  of 
Japanese  adventurers  who  came  over  to  exploit  the  helpless  country,  were  fast 
reducing  the  people  to  the  desperation  of  despair.  Civil  government  was  then 
established  under  Prince  Ito.  Under  his  wise  and  statesmanlike  administration, 
many  needed  reforms  were  inaugurated.  Some  of  the  indolent  and  careless 
Koreans  resented  the  effort  to  arouse  them  from  their  lethargy,  compel  them  to 
obey  sanitary  regulations,  and  to  work  as  they  had  never  worked  before;  but  the 
Japanese  were  right,  and  the  substantial  benefits  of  their  policy  soon  became  so 
apparent  that  the  better  class  of  Koreans  began  to  recognize  them  and  the  country 
appeared  to  be  entering  upon  an  era  of  peaceful  prosperity.  The  American  mis- 
sionaries were  outspoken  in  praise  of  Prince  Ito’s  policy  and  did  everything  in 
their  power  to  influence  the  Koreans  to  accept  it  as  the  best  for  the  country. 
Prince  Ito’s  successor,  Viscount  Sone,  continued  this  wise  policy.  After  an  admin- 
istration which  was  shortened  by  illness,  he  was  succeeded  in  August,  1910,  by  the 
present  Governor  General,  Count  Terauchi.  He  is  an  army  officer  of  high  rank 
and  was  formerly  Minister  of  War  in  Tokyo.  He  is  a soldier  by  temperament  as 
well  as  by  profession,  an  able  executive  and  was  believed  to  hold  just  and  moderate 
views  and  to  be  disposed  to  continue  the  enlightened  policy  of  his  predecessors. 

Two  events,  however,  induced  him  to  listen  to  the  more  extreme  party,  which 
was  headed  by  General  Akashi,  Commander  of  the  Gendarmerie.  The  first  was  a 
vendetta  of  assassination.  In  March,  1908,  Mr.  D.  W.  Stevens,  American  Adviser 
on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Japanese  in  Korea,  was  shot  in  San  Francisco  by  a 
Korean  who  claimed  to  be  a Protestant.  In  October,  1909,  Prince  Ito,  Korea’s 
greatest  benefactor  among  the  Japanese,  was  assassinated  in  Harbin  by  a Korean 
who  had  been  a Roman  Catholic.  The  following  month,  twenty-one  Koreans, 
eighteen  of  whom  were  said  to  be  Christians,  attempted  to  kill  the  Prime  Minister 
of  Japan,  who  was  visiting  Korea.  These  deplorable  occurrences  doubtless 
brought  Count  Terauchi  to  Korea  with  the  conviction  that  he  would  have 
to  deal  with  desperate  men  and  with  the  suspicion  that  such  men  were 
trying  to  shelter  themselves  in  the  Christian  Church.  The  second  event 
was  the  growth  of  revolutionary  sentiment  in  various  parts  of  Asia  and 
particularly  in  China.  Every  throne  felt  its  effects  and  the  minds  of  some 
Koreans  were  stirred  with  new  hope  that  they,  too,  might  inaugurate  a successful 
revolt,  pathetic  as  such  a hope  seems  to  us.  The  party  which  favored  stern  treat- 
ment of  the  Koreans  made  the  most  of  these  events.  They  vehemently  argued  that 
the  fate  of  Prince  Ito  showed  the  futility  of  a conciliatory  policy  and  that  if  Japan 
did  not  want  to  have  a revolution  on  its  hands,  it  must  adopt  such  sternly  repressive 
measures  that  the  Koreans  would  learn  once  for  all  that  Japan  would  not  brook- 
opposition.  Like  men  of  the  same  type  in  Europe  and  America,  the  Japanese 

4 


“Jingoes”  luridly  described  the  perils  to  which  the  nation  was  exposed  and  the 
necessity  of  giving  the  military  secret  service  and  the  Gendarmerie  ample  powers  to 
meet  them.  When  the  Governor  General  made  a journey,  they  surrounded  him 
with  police  and  gave  him  the  impression  that  nothing  but  their  vigilance  saved 
his  life.  For  example,  when  he  was  to  pass  through  Syen  Chyun  (Japanese  Sensen), 
December  28,  1910,  the  police  ordered  the  students  of  the  mission  school,  the 
Hugh  O’Neill,  Jr.,  Industrial  Academy,  to  be  at  the  railway  station  in  honor  of 
his  passage.  Before  the  boys  were  permitted  to  enter  the  station  enclosure,  they 
were  searched  by  the  police  and  deprived  of  their  pocket-knives.  Two  six-year-old 
tots,  whose  little  legs  had  been  unable  to  keep  up  with  the  procession  and  who 
arrived  breathlessly  a few  minutes  afterwards,  were  also  searched  in  the  same 
manner  and  their  pencil  knives  taken  away.  The  “Data  for  Prosecution,”  issued 
by  the  Japanese  in  the  spring  of  1912  as  a “statement  of  the  facts  connected  with 
the  indictment  of  the  accused  Koreans,”  includes  the  following: 

"At  Syen  Chun,  the  conspirators  proceeded  on  the  28th  (Dec.  1910)  to  the  station  again 
and  ranged  themselves  on  the  platform  with  the  Japanese  and  Koreans  who  came  there  to 
welcome  the  Governor  General.  The  train  arrived  about  noon,  and  every  one  of  the  would-be 
assassins  watched  intently  for  the  opportunity,  having  ready  his  revolver  or  short  sword  under 
his  long  cloak.  The  Governor  General  descended  from  the  train  and  saluting  the  welcomers 
passed  within  three  or  four  steps  of  the  conspirators.  Owing,  however,  to  the  strict  vigilance 
of  the  police  officers  and  others,  they  could  not  accomplish  their  nefarious  object.” 

“The  Data  for  Prosecution”  describes  several  other  alleged  attempts  to 
assassinate  the  Governor  General  at  railway  stations,  the  accounts  closing  with 
substantially  the  same  formula : “The  Governor  General  passed  closely  by  the 
would-be  assassins,  but  the  vigilance  of  the  Gendarmerie  gave  them  no  chance.” 
It  would  occur  to  the  average  man  that  as  railway  station  premises  in  Korea  are 
carefully  enclosed  and  as  no  one  was  permitted  to  pass  the  gates,  when  the  Gov- 
ernor General  came,  without  being  searched,  “the  would-be  assassins”  could  hardly 
have  brought  into  the  station  “ready  revolvers  or  short  swords,”  except  with  the 
connivance  of  the  police,  and  that  if  they  did  get  inside  with  such  arms  and  with 
the  intention  of  killing  the  Governor  General,  they  had  ample  opportunity  to  do 
so  at  some  one  of  the  several  times  described  by  the  police  when  “he  passed  closely 
by  them.”  It  is  difficult  to  read  this  official  document  without  getting  the  impres- 
sion that  the  police  who  furnished  the  material  were  very  desirous  of  giving  the 
Governor  General  to  understand  that  nothing  but  their  “vigilance”  had  kept  him 
from  being  assassinated.  It  requires  either  some  ulterior  purpose,  or  such  a 
panic-stricken  imagination  as  the  Russian  naval  officers  had  when  they  fired  on 
fishing  boats  in  the  North  Sea,  to  see  dangerous  assassins  in  trembling  little  boys 
whose  very  penknives  had  been  taken  away  from  them. 

Evidences  have  been  multiplying  for  more  than  a year  that  this  military  party 
is  now  in  the  saddle.  Uniformed  gendarmes  swarm  in  Korea,  particularly  in  the 
north.  Secret  police  are  ubiquitous.  Spies  attend  every  meeting  of  Koreans.  All 
organizations  are  suspected  of  revolutionary  designs.  Perhaps  some  organizations 
had  such  designs.  We  do  not  know  that  they  had,  but  every  country  in  Asia  is 
honeycombed  with  guilds  and  societies  of  various  kinds,  many  of  them  more  or 
less  political.  The  Koreans  would  be  lacking  in  the  commonest  elements  of  human 
nature  if  some  of  them  might  not  have  thought  of  doing  what  every  subject  people 

5 


has  done  since  the  world  began — take  secret  counsel  as  to  how  the  yoke  of  the  alien 
conqueror  might  be  thrown  off. 

From  all  political  movements,  however,  the  missionaries  and  the  leading 
Korean  Christians  resolutely  sought  to  keep  the  Churches  aloof.  Obedience  to 
“the  powers  that  be”  was  preached  from  every  pulpit.  The  Church  must  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  politics,  the  Christians  were  told.  Some  Christians  who  were  sus- 
pected of  activity  in  political  movements  were  not  permitted  to  hold  office  in  the 
Church,  and  in  some  cases  were  excommunicated.  So  strong  was  this  determina- 
tion of  the  missionaries  and  Korean  Church  leaders  that  it  was  not  uncommon  for 
Koreans  outside  of  the  Churches  to  taunt  Christians  with  being  on  the  side  of  the 
enemies  of  their  country  and  for  the  missionaries  to  be  told  that  if  it  were  not  for 
them,  a revolution  would  have  been  started  long  ago.  When  I was  in  Korea  in 
1909,  I was  at  pains  to  question  the  missionaries  and  leading  Korean  Christians 
regarding  their  attitude  toward  the  Japanese.  The  conferences  were  in  private 
homes,  and  those  who  were  present  had  no  motive  for  not  talking  frankly. 
I asked  them  whether  they  deemed  it  their  duty  to  oppose  the  Japanese  Govern- 
ment, or  to  ignore  it  as  far  as  possible,  or  to  ally  themselves  with  it  in  active  co- 
operation, or  loyally  to  recognize  the  Government  and  submit  themselves  to  it. 
Without  exception  they  took  the  last  of  these  positions,  holding  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  ignore  the  Government ; that  either  opposition  or  co-operation  would  take 
the  Church  into  politics;  but  that  loyal  recognition  was  the  duty  of  every  Christian 
and  in  line  with  the  teaching  of  Christ,  who  said : “Render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
which  be  Caesar’s,”  and  of  Paul,  who  said:  “Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the 
higher  powers.”  One  of  the  missionaries  made  the  point  that  when  a missionary 
opposes  wrong,  he  should  not  be  understood  as  opposing  the  Japanese  Government 
Missionaries  have  strongly  objected  to  some  things  which  Americans  have 
done  in  the  Philippine  Islands ; but  they  have  not  been  considered  hostile  to  the 
Government  on  that  account.  It  is  the  duty  of  missionaries  to  oppose  evil 
wherever  it  exists  and  under  whatever  auspices.  When  they  protest  against  the 
opium  traffic,  they  are  simply  doing  what  the  Japanese  Government  is  enforcing 
by  law  in  Japan.  When  they  oppose  the  establishment  of  brothels,  they  are  think- 
ing of  vice,  not  the  Government.  After  going  back  and  forth  through  Korea  and 
getting  the  opinions  of  missionaries  and  Korean  Christians  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other,  I am  satisfied  that  our  missionaries  in  Korea  have  taken  the 
right  position  on  this  question. 

In  spite  of  this  policy,  however,  the  Churches  did  not  escape  hostile  espionage 
and  they  soon  began  to  feel  the  unpleasant  effects.  For  more  than  two  years,  re- 
ports have  reached  us  from  various  parts  of  the  country  of  growing  suspicion  and 
harshness  by  Japanese  local  gendarmes  toward  the  helpless  Korean  Christians. 
Making  all  due  allowance  for  exceptional  cases  which  may  have  justified  suspicion, 
the  correspondence  indicates  that  something  more  is  involved  in  the  course  of  the 
Japanese  Gendarmerie  than  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  assumption  that,  wholly 
unknown  to  the  missionaries,  there  was  a plot  against  the  Government  of  which 
certain  Korean  Christians  may  have  been  cognizant. 

It  is  said  that  the  liberty  which  Christianity  enjoys  in  Japan  proves  that  the 
Japanese  are  not  persecuting  it  in  Korea.  We  believe  this  to  be  true,  and  therefore 

6 


we  had  no  fears  for  mission  work  when  Korea  was  annexed  by  Japan.  A distinction, 
however,  must  now  be  observed  between  the  Japanese  conception  of  Christianity 
and  the  Japanese  conception  of  the  Church  as  an  organization.  In  Japan,  there  is 
no  hostility  to  the  Church  because  it  is  composed  of  Japanese,  some  of  them  of 
high  rank,  and  it  is  controlled  by  them.  The  missionaries  co-operate  with  the 
Church,  but  they  have  little  or  no  voice  in  its  management.  In  Korea,  however, 
the  Church  is  not  only  much  larger  than  in  Japan,  numbering,  with  enrolled 
catechumens,  about  250,000,  but  it  is  of  course  composed  of  Koreans.  The 
Japanese  desire  to  control  everything  within  their  dominions,  as  foreign  business 
men  have  learned  to  their  cost.  This  is  particularly  true  in  Korea,  where  they 
deem  it  necessary  to  their  plans  to  be  absolute  masters.  Now  the  Japanese 
see  in  the  Korean  Churches  numerous  and  powerful  organizations  of  their 
subjects  which  they  do  not  control.  They  observe  the  devotion  of  the  people  to 
the  Church,  a devotion  almost  unparalleled  elsewhere.  The  life  of  the  Korean  was 
singularly  empty  and  forlorn  before  Christianity  came  to  him.  When  he  heard 
the  Gospel  preached,  he  eagerly  accepted  it  and  found  in  its  services  inspirations 
and  companionships  that  he  had  never  before  known.  He  can  say  with  Paul : 
“For  me  to  live  is  Christ.”  When  he  has  a dispute  with  his  brother  Christian,  he 
remembers  the  New  Testament  question:  “Dare  any  of  you  having  a matter 
against  his  neighbor  go  to  law  before  the  unrighteous  and  not  before  the  saints?” 
So  he  takes  his  case,  not  to  the  Japanese  policeman  or  magistrate,  but  to  his  pastor 
or  the  missionary.  This  leaves  the  Japanese  official  with  little  to  do  and  forces 
him  to  see  the  life  of  the  people,  whom  he  is  supposed  to  govern,  go  on  without 
him.  A Japanese  town  of  8,000  inhabitants  probably  has  one  or  two  hundred 
Christians.  The  church  edifice  is  a comparatively  small  building  and  the  congre- 
gations are  largely  outnumbered  by  Buddhist  or  secular  gatherings.  But  of  the 
8,000  inhabitants  of  the  Korean  town  of  Syen  Chyun,  where  the  present  trouble 
first  became  acute,  about  half  are  Christians,  while  the  adjacent  villages  are  also 
largely  Christian.  The  church  and  the  mission  school  are  the  largest  and  most 
conspicuous  buildings  in  the  place.  There  are  no  Buddhist  temples  and  no  secular 
attractions  which  can  draw  more  than  a few  score  persons.  Congregations  of 
Christians,  however,  throng  the  Church  with  1,200  or  1,500  Koreans  several  times 
on  Sundays,  and  the  mid-week  prayer  meetings  are  attended  by  from  700  to 
1,000.  Similar  conditions  prevail  in  many  other  towns  and  villages.  Presbyterians 
alone  report  60,736  Christians,  including  enrolled  adherents,  in  Syen  Chyun  and 
Pyeng  Yang  (Japanese  Heijo)  and  their  tributary  villages.  As  the  Japanese 
police  note  the  multitudes  of  Christians  flocking  to  the  churches,  they  irritablv 
wonder  why  these  Christians  meet  so  often  and  what  they  are  doing.  Spies  are 
sent  to  find  out.  Imperious  as  Russian  police  in  hunting  political  agitators  among 
students,  eager  to  obtain  the  rewards  which  are  believed  to  be  bestowed  upon  the 
police  who  are  most  successful  in  ferreting  out  treason,  and  unfamiliar  with 
Christian  terminology,  their  suspicions  arc  aroused  as  they  hear  the  great  congre- 
gations sing  with  fervor  such  hymns  as : 

“Onward,  Christian  Soldiers, 

Marching  as  to  War!” 


7 


“Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus, 

Ye  Soldiers  of  the  Cross!” 

and  then  listen  to  a stirring  sermon  which  may  personify  the  forces  of  evil  in  the 
heart,  as  Paul  did,  and  summon  the  believer  to  cast  them  out.  One  of  the  mission- 
aries, Mr.  George  S.  McCune,  of  Syen  Chyun,  in  one  of  his  daily  Bible  talks  to  his 
students  in  the  Hugh  O’Neill,  Jr.,  Academy,  expounded  the  narrative  of  David  and 
Goliath,  “emphasizing  the  conventional  lesson  that  the  weak  man  whose  cause  is 
just  and  whose  heart  is  pure  can  overcome  the  strongest.”  This  was  promptly 
reported  to  the  authorities  as  treasonable,  since  Mr.  McCune  must  have  intended 
to  teach  that  David  symbolized  the  weak  Korean  and  Goliath  the  strong  Japanese. 
One  pastor  is  said  to  have  been  arrested  because  he  preached  about  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven ; he  was  told  that  there  was  “only  one  kingdom  out  here  and  that  is  the 
kingdom  of  Japan.”  The  Christian  Church  opposes  immorality,  the  morphine 
habit,  and  cigarette  smoking,  especially  by  the  women  and  children,  and  this  has 
aroused  the  anger  of  certain  Japanese  who  have  done  not  a little  to  encourage  these 
vices  in  Korea.  Pastor  Kil  of  Pyeng  Yang  advised  the  parents  of  his  congregation 
not  to  allow  their  children  to  smoke  cigarettes  or  to  work  in  the  recently  estab- 
lished cigarette  factory.  Shortly  afterward,  he  was  warned  by  the  police  that,  as 
the  manufacture  of  tobacco  was  a government  monopoly,  his  advice  was  treason- 
able and  must  not  be  repeated.  Thus  the  police  placed  wrong  constructions  upon 
what  they  saw  and  heard,  and  imagined  in  a vague  but  bitter  way  that  it  was 
inimical  to  the  interests  of  Japan  to  have  such  a large  organization  of  Koreans  that 
was  not  amenable  to  their  control. 

The  suspicions  of  the  Japanese  may  have  been  strengthened  by  the  widely 
published  statements  regarding  the  prominence  of  Christians  in  the  revolutionary 
movement  in  China.  Every  American  and  European  knows  that  while  Chris- 
tianity awakens  the  minds  of  men,  makes  them  impatient  of  injustice  and  arouses 
them  to  demand  an  honest  and  enlightened  government,  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  to  lead  Christians  to  conspire  against  a govern- 
ment, unless  it  is  an  evil  and  oppressive  one.  Japanese  Christians  are  famous  for 
their  loyalty  to  their  Emperor,  and  British  Christians  are  more  devoted  to  their 
King  than  American  Christians  are  to  their  President.  If  a government  is  just, 
Christianity  is  absolutely  indifferent  as  to  whether  it  is  monarchical  or  republican. 
Indeed,  the  majority  of  Christians  throughout  the  w^orld  live  contentedly  under 
monarchies.  Christians  in  China  opposed  the  Manchu  Dynasty,  not  because  it  had 
an  Emperor,  but  because  it  was  hopelessly  reactionary  and  corrupt.  As  a matter 
of  fact,  the  revolutionary  spirit  was  strongest  among  the  Chinese  who  were 
educated  in  Japan.  But  the  Japanese  police  in  Korea  got  it  into  their  heads  that 
the  great  organization  of  the  Korean  Church  was  a hotbed  of  revolutionary  oppor- 
tunity, and  they  jealously  watched  it.  The  so-called  “Million  Evangelistic  Cam- 
paign” in  1910  and  1911  intensified  these  suspicions.  It  was  a concerted  effort  of 
the  Churches  to  seek  the  conversion  of  a million  souls.  But  the  Japanese  misun- 
derstood it,  or  if  they  did  not,  they  feared  that  such  an  enormous  re-enforcement 
would  make  the  leaders  of  the  Church  overshadow  the  civil  authorities  still  more. 
The  police  accordingly  redoubled  their  activities.  Gendarmes  in  uniform  and  spies 
in  citizens’  dress  attended  the  special  services.  Pastors  were  required  to  report  the 

8 


names  of  converts  at  police  headquarters.  A gendarme  entered  a private  house, 
drew  his  sword  and  threateningly  asked  why  the  owner  had  joined  “the  Jesus 
Church”  the  night  before.  Shop-keepers  who  became  Christians  were  visited  by 
the  police  and  remonstrated  with  for  closing  their  places  of  business  on  Sunday. 
In  one  country  church,  a Japanese  official  walked  into  the  pulpit  during  a Sunday 
service  and  denounced  Christianity  to  the  congregation.  Probably  one  reason  for 
the  arrest  of  so  many  leaders  of  the  Church  was  the  desire  to  find  out  whether  the 
Christians  of  Korea  were  inclined  to  imitate  the  example  of  their  brethren  in  China 
and  whether  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho  was  ambitious  of  becoming  a Korean  Sun  Yat  Sen. 

The  strain  was  intensified  by  the  educational  situation.  The  Japanese  attach 
great  importance  to  their  public  school  system  in  Japan  and  on  the  necessity  of 
managing  it  as  a department  of  the  Government.  When  they  established  them- 
selves in  Korea,  they  projected  a system  of  schools,  believing  that  the  instruction 
of  Korean  children  in  government  public  schools  would  be  to  the  advantage  of 
both  Korea  and  Japan,  as  the  American  Government  believed  that  such  schools  in 
the  Philippines  would  be  to  the  advantage  of  Filipinos  and  Americans  alike.  The 
Japanese  found,  however,  that,  with  the  negligible  exception  of  a few  poor  schools, 
all  the  education  of  the  Korean  was  in  the  hands  of  the  missionaries  and  the 
Churches  under  their  care.  The  missionaries,  like  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New 
England,  had  planted  the  church  and  the  schoolhouse  side  by  side.  Every  chapel, 
however  small,  had  an  attached  primary  school.  Every  mission  station  had  board- 
ing schools,  Pyeng  Yang  had  a college  and  Seoul  professional  schools.  The 
Japanese  opened  schools;  but  the  Christians  naturally  preferred  to  send  their 
children  to  the  mission  schools  which  they  had  so  long  and  favorably  known, 
especially  as  the  Japanese  common  schools,  when  accessible  at  all,  seemed  to  the 
Koreans  to  be  chiefly  intended  to  teach  the  Japanese  language,  history  and  cus- 
toms, to  give  a training  that  was  inferior  to  that  of  the  mission  schools  and  that 
was  at  best  non-Christian  and  sometimes  practically  anti-Christian.  The  Japanese 
chafed  under  this  situation.  They  were  not  satisfied  either  with  the  kind  of  edu- 
cational work  which  was  done  in  some  of  the  church  primary  schools  in  villages 
where  the  Christians  had  been  unable  to  secure  trained  teachers.  They  began  to 
pass  law's  for  the  regulation  of  all  schools,  to  prescribe  curricula  and  text-books, 
and  to  confer  certain  privileges  on  schools  which  conformed  to  the  Government 
regulations ; privileges  wffiich  had  the  effect  of  discriminating  against  mission 
schools. 

All  this,  of  course,  the  Japanese  had  a perfect  right  to  do.  The  educational 
situation  needed  co-ordination  and  standardizing.  The  Japanese  strictly  supervise 
their  schools  in  Japan,  and  they  cannot  be  reasonably  blamed  for  doing  so  in 
Korea.  The  missionaries,  while  deprecating  a few  regulations,  promptly  declared 
their  readiness  to  co-operate  with  the  authorities.  I had  a long  interview  with  the 
Japanese  Minister  of  Education  when  I was  in  Seoul  (Japanese  Keijo)  in  1909. 
The  Rev.  Drs.  Gale  and  Underwood  accompanied  me  as  a Committee  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Mission.  We  assured  the  Minister  of  our  loyal  desire  to  conform  to  the 
Government  regulations.  But  the  local  gendarmes  are  restive  as  they  see  so  many 
children  ignoring  the  Japanese  schools.  When  a policeman  calls  on  a Korean  parent 
and  sharply  asks  him  why  he  does  not  send  his  children  to  the  public  school  instead 

9 


of  to  the  church  school,  the  timid  Korean  is  apt  to  conclude  that  he  is  in  danger  of 
punishment  if  he  does  not  heed  what  he  regards  as  a mandate;  and  when  so  many 
of  the  teachers  and  pupils  of  the  mission  schools  were  among  those  who  were 
arrested,  the  conclusion  appeared  to  be  justified.  To-day,  the  whole  extensive 
system  of  church  primary  schools  in  Korea  is  in  jeopardy,  and,  rightly  or  wrongly, 
many  Koreans  believe  that  if  they  identify  themselves  with  the  church,  they  will 
incur  the  displeasure  of  the  police. 

The  influence  of  the  American  missionaries  over  the  Korean  Christians  is 
another  difficulty  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  Japanese.  Whatever  may  be  the 
hostile  attitude  of  the  lower  police  officials  and  the  unprincipled  vendors  of 
morphine  and  panderers  of  vice,  intelligent  Japanese  thoroughly  respect  the 
missionaries.  They  know  them  to  be  Christian  gentlemen  of  the  best  type, 
who  are  devoting  their  lives  to  unselfish  labor  for  the  Korean  people.  It  would 
be  easy  to  fill  pages  with  testimonies  of  Japanese  of  high  rank  to  the  character 
and  work  of  the  missionaries.  Many  Japanese  would  agree  with  the  traveller 
who  recently  wrote  from  Korea : “Here  has  been  wrought  one  of  the  greatest 

Christian  accomplishments  in  the  world’s  history.  The  lives  of  the  Americans 
who  have  accomplished  this  great  work  are  an  open  book.  I hold  no  brief  for 
the  missionary.  But  I have  seen  much  of  the  work  being  done  here  and  I know 
the  men  who  are  doing  it.  Picture  to  yourself  the  saintliest  man  of  your 
acquaintance — the  man  whose  character  is  so  far  above  reproach  that  no  man 
has  ever  questioned  it  even  in  his  own  mind  ; the  man  who,  filled  with  the  spirit 
of  Christianity,  lives  his  religion  every  day  of  his  life ; the  man  who  asks  nothing 
else  but  opportunity  to  devote  all  his  talents  and  all  his  energies  to  unselfish 
labor  in  his  Master’s  service.  Think  of  that  man,  and  you  have  the  American 
missionary  in  Korea  as  I know  him  to  be.”  The  Japan  Advertiser  editorially 
referred  to  this  opinion  and  added:  “We  do  not  believe  these  statements  will 

be  gainsaid  by  unprejudiced  critics.” 

Just  because  of  this  character,  the  Korean  Christians  look  up  to  the  mis- 
sionaries with  an  affection  and  respect  bordering  upon  veneration.  When  they 
were  ignorant,  depressed  and  superstitious,  the  missionaries  brought  them 
knowledge  and  hope,  liberated  them  from  the  fear  of  demons,  ministered  to 
their  sick  in  hospitals,  taught  their  children  in  schools,  visited  the  poor,  com- 
forted the  dying,  and  preached  to  all  the  people  “good  tidings  of  great  joy.” 
And  the  simple-hearted  Koreans,  temperamentally  affectionate  and  responsive 
to  a high  degree,  gladly  responded  to  the  message  and  gave  to  the  men  and 
women  who  brought  it  an  unstinted  measure  of  devotion.  The  missionaries 
are  the  great  men  in  Korea.  While  they  cannot  control  the  political  activities  of 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Korean  Christians,  they  have,  as  we  have  seen,  used 
their  great  influence  to  induce  the  Koreans  to  acquiesce  in  Japanese  rule.  Indeed,  it 
has  often  been  said  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  missionaries,  a revolution  would 
have  broken  out  when  Korea  was  annexed  to  Japan.  The  Japanese  fully 
appreciate  this ; but  they  are  restive  under  a situation  in  which  foreigners 
apparently  have  power  to  make  or  unmake  a revolution  among  their. own 
subjects.  Japanese  national  pride  demands  Japanese  supremacy  within 
Japanese  territory.  A Japanese  official  who  sees  himself  overshadowed  by  an 

10 


American  missionary  is  more  or  less  unconsciously  jealous  and  is  apt  to  feel 
that  such  preeminence  is  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  Japan  and  that  in  some 
way  it  must  be  broken.  It  is  clear  that  the  missionaries  are  not  to  be  blamed 
for  this  situation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a high  tribute  to  their  worth.  We 
cannot  tell  them  to  act  so  badly  that  they  will  forfeit  the  respect  of  the  Korean 
Christians.  But  it  is  equally  clear  that  the  missionaries  and  Boards  must  consider 
the  viewpoint  of  the  Japanese  and  do  what  they  can  to  meet  it. 

We  do  not  insist  that  all  of  the  several  hundred  American  missionaries  in 
Korea  have  been  wholly  without  fault.  In  the  midst  of  a frightened  and 
helpless  people,  seeing  what  they  believe  to  be  severity  and  injustice,  anxious 
for  the  churches  and  schools  which  represent  the  toils  of  many  years,  they 
cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to  act  as  if  they  were  deaf  and  dumb.  Let  it  be 
conceded  that  some  of  them  have  contributed  heat  as  well  as  light  to  the  ques- 
tion under  consideration.  But  the  arm-chair  critic  ten  thousand  miles  away 
may  discreetly  ask  himself  whether  he  would  not  have  acted  worse  than  they 
have.  As  a matter  of  fact,  the  missionary  body  as  a whole  has  acted  with 
remarkable  moderation,  dignity  and  self-restraint.  They  may  need  to  be 
cautioned  and  advised  by  men  to  whom  distance  can  give  greater  calmness  of 
judgment;  but  such  caution  and  advice  they  have  not  only  shown  themselves 
willing  to  receive  but  they  have  earnestly  sought  them.  It  is  not  true,  as  some 
Japanese  newspapers  have  alleged,  that  the  missionaries  in  Korea  are  anti- 
Japanese.  But  if  those  papers  believe  it  to  be  true,  let  them  ask  themselves 
why  approximately  three  hundred  American,  English,  Canadian  and  Australian 
missionaries,  who  three  years  ago  defended  and  frequently  praised  the  course 
of  the  Japanese  in  Korea,  now  feel  distressed  by  the  Japanese  policy  and  atti- 
tude. The  influential  Japanese  editor  of  “The  Fukuin  Shimpo,”  Tokyo,  while 
suggesting  that  “the  foreign  missionaries  in  Korea  seem  to  be  moved  by  various 
baseless  imaginations  resulting  from  a misunderstanding  of  the  facts,”  candidly 
adds:  “Nevertheless,  there  is  probably  material  for  reflection  and  improvement  in 
the  causes  and  conditions  which  have  stirred  their  minds  to  such  a degree  and  a 
prompt  investigation  would  benefit  the  nation.”1  Some  allowance  may  be  made 
for  the  fact  that  abuses  can  be  found  in  every  land,  and  that  in  the  tense  feeling 
that  has  now  developed  in  Korea,  men  on  both  sides  are  apt  to  be  more  emphatic 
in  their  statements  than  men  at  a distance  may  deem  judicious.  But  the  existence 
of  such  an  unfortunate  state  of  mind  is  a fact  not  only  to  be  deprecated  but 
to  be  accounted  for.  Some  of  us  personally  know  many  of  the  missionaries. 
We  have  visited  them  from  one  end  of  Korea  to  the  other,  have  seen  their  work, 
been  in  their  homes  and  freely  counselled  with  them,  and  we  can  testify  to  their 
wisdom  and  single-hearted  devotion.  So  careful  have  they  been  to  avoid  circulating 
reports  of  the  doings  of  Japanese  gendarmes  that  they  hardly  ever  mentioned  them 
in  their  letters  until  many  months  had  passed.  To  this  day,  large  numbers  of  mis- 
sionaries have  sent  nothing  to  their  Boards  about  the  troubles.  This  may  be  parti v 
due  to  the  belief  that  their  letters  are  opened  by  the  Japanese,  but  it  is  due  in  larger 
part  to  their  reluctance  to  criticise  the  Japanese  except  when  forced  to  do  so  by 
their  immediate  relation  to  specific  cases  of  injustice.  Aside  from  a few 
official  letters  that  were  sent  directly  to  the  Japanese  and  some  confidential 
•Sept.  12,  1912. 


11 


letters  that  were  not  intended  for  publication,  most  of  the  published  statements 
have  emanated  from  those  who  are  not  connected  with  the  missions  or  the 
Boards.  The  fullest  published  accounts  have  been  given  by  the  Special 
Correspondents  of  the  New  York  Herald,  the  New  York  Sun,  the  New  York 
Continent,  and  the  Editor  of  the  London  Weekly  Times.  They  wrote  inde- 
pendently of  one  another  on  information  which  each  secured  for  himself.  Some  of 
their  statements  do  not  accord  with  our  conception  of  the  question  and  some 
others  impress  us  as  extreme.  But  these  writers  are  not  common  sensationalists 
nor  are  they  connected  with  the  missionary  enterprise.  They  are  experienced 
journalists  of  the  highest  standing,  who  are,  or  who  recently  have  been,  in  Korea 
and  whose  knowledge  of  Far  Eastern  affairs  is  profound. 

In  the  fall  of  1911,  the  Japanese  suspicion  of  the  Churches  began  to  find 
more  open  expression  in  the  arrest  of  leading  Korean  Christians.  While 
reports  of  harsh  treatment  came  from  several  parts  of  Korea,  the  town  of 
Syen  Chyun,  already  referred  to,  suffered  the  heaviest  blow.  The  mission 
high  school,  The  Hugh  O’Neill,  Jr.,  Industrial  Academy,  with  158  students,  is, 
next  to  the  Church,  the  dominating  institution  of  the  whole  region.  October 
12,  1911,  three  pupils  were  arrested  and  sent  to  Seoul.  Other  arrests  followed,  until 
so  many  teachers  and  students  were  in  jail  that  the  Academy  had  to  be  closed. 
Pastors,  elders,  deacons  and  other  leading  church  members  were  also 
imprisoned  and  sent  hand-cuffed  to  the  capital,  until  the  whole  Christian  popu- 
lation was  in  a panic.  The  police  refused  to  make  any  explanations  either  to 
the  arrested  men  or  to  their  agonized  families.  Many  of  the  men  and  boys 
were  kept  in  jail  for  months  without  proper  food  or  clothing  for  the  cold 
weather,  without  knowing  the  charges  against  them,  and  without  being  per- 
mitted to  have  legal  counsel.  Other  arrests  were  made  in  other  places,  until  a 
considerable  number  of  Christians  were  in  jail.  It  has  been  wrongly  said  that 
the  number  reached  6,000  by  the  spring  of  1912.  This  story  probably  grew 
out  of  a statement  in  the  Official  Gazette  that  there  were  over  6,000  Koreans  in 
jail  all  over  the  country ; but  that  meant  for  all  causes  and  included  Christians 
and  non-Christians.  The  exact  number  of  Christians  who  have  been  arrested 
in  various  places  and  released  by  the  local  officials,  with  or  without  other 
punishment,  is  not  known  and  is  not  likely  to  be.  After  the  protests  had 
become  world-wide,  Count  Terauchi  was  reported  by  the  New  York  Sun,  Octo- 
ber 3,  1912,  as  stating  that  he  had  caused  an  inquiry  to  be  made  and  that  there 
were  287  Koreans  confined  in  the  various  jails  of  Korea,  151  of  them  being 
Christians.  That  only  287  persons  in  a population  of  13,115,449  were  in  prison 
on  a given  date  suggests  either  that  the  Koreans  are  such  a peaceable  and  law- 
abiding  people  that  the  Japanese  should  not  be  alarmed  about  them,  or  else 
that  the  police  liberated  a good  many  prisoners  before  answering  Count 
Terauchi’s  question.  At  any  rate,  the  number  of  arrested  men  that  were  sent 
from  provincial  towns  to  Seoul  for  the  particular  charge  now  under  considera- 
tion was  said  by  the  Seoul  Press  of  April  19,  1912,  to  have  been  150.  A reliable 
man  on  the  ground,  who  had  carefully  investigated  the  question,  wrote  me  in 
July  that  the  men  then  being  tried  numbered  125,  that  nine  had  been  exiled 


without  trial,  that  three  were  reported  to  have  died  as  a result  of  torture  and 
imprisonment,  and  that  about  twenty  had  been  released,  a total  of  157. 

The  character  of  the  accused  men  is  significant.  Here  were  no  criminal 
types,  no  baser  elements  of  the  population,  but  men  of  the  highest  standing, 
long  and  intimately  known  to  the  missionaries  as  Koreans  of  faith  and  purity 
of  life  and  conspicuous  for  their  good  influence  over  their  people.  Two  were 
Congregationalists,  six  Methodists,  and  eighty-nine  Presbyterians.  Of  the 
Presbyterians,  five  were  pastors  of  churches,  eight  were  elders,  eight  deacons, 
ten  leaders  of  village  groups  of  Christians,  forty-two  baptized  church  members, 
and  thirteen  catechumens.  All  but  one  of  the  Presbyterians  were  from  the 
Syen  Chyun  and  Pyeng  Yang  station  churches.  The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  W.  Pinson, 
of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  who  attended  part  of  the  trial  in  Seoul,  wrote  August  29th  : 
“One  of  the  striking  things  about  this  body  of  prisoners  is  its  personnel.  If 
one  is  here  looking  for  weak  and  cringing  cowards  or  brazen  desperadoes,  he 
will  be  disappointed.  Instead,  he  will  see  men  erect,  manly,  self-respecting 
and  intelligent.  There  are  many  faces  that  bear  the  marks  of  unusual  strength 
and  nobility  of  character.  As  a whole,  they  are  a body  of  men  of  far  better 
quality  than  one  would  expect  to  see  in  the  same  number  of  men  anywhere  in 
this  country.  The  gendarmes  have  thrust  their  sickle  in  among  the  tallest 
wheat.  These  men  do  not  belong  to  the  criminal  or  irresponsible  class  of 
society.  Most  of  them  are  Presbyterians  trained  after  the  strictest  sect  of  the 
Shorter  Catechism.  These  are  not  the  type  of  men  to  be  guilty  of  such  a plot 
as  that  with  which  they  are  charged.  They  are  too  intelligent.  They  might 
be  capable  of  a desperate  venture  for  a great  cause,  but  they  could  not  possibly 
undertake  anything  idiotic.” 

It  is  about  as  difficult  for  those  who  know  them  to  believe  that  any  such 
number  of  Christian  ministers,  elders  and  teachers  had  committed  crime  as  it 
would  be  for  the  people  of  New  Jersey  to  believe  that  the  faculty,  students  and 
local  clergy  of  Princeton  were  conspirators  and  assassins.  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho, 
who  was  later  charged  with  being  a ringleader  of  the  conspiracy,  was  in  Amer- 
ica at  the  time  of  the  assassination  of  Prince  Ito.  He  was  the  guest  of  Bishop 
Candler,  who  was  formerly  President  of  the  college  at  which  Baron  Yun  Chi 
Ho  was  educated.  In  the  freedom  of  personal  conversation  with  his  host,  the 
Baron  expressed  the  utmost  horror  of  the  deed  and  ejaculated  with  every  evi- 
dence of  distress:  “Such  efforts  will  not  help  my  country.”  We  do  not  profess 

to  know  all  that  the  people  of  Korea  may  have  said  or  thought.  Some  of  the 
younger  men  may  have  talked  with  that  injudicious  valor  of  speech  which  charac- 
terizes young  men  in  many  lands;  nor  is  it  inconceivable  that  a Christian  may  hold 
political  opinions  at  variance  with  those  of  his  rulers  and  deem  it  his  patriotic  duty 
to  try  to  overthrow  an  alien  government.  Most  nations  have  had  such  men.  The 
history  of  England,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  Italy,  the  United  States  as  well  as 
of  Japan  itself  abounds  in  accounts  of  revolutionary  movements  and  the  convul- 
sions of  civil  wars.  If  such  things  could  occur  in  these  larger  and  stronger  nations, 
it  is  not  incredible  that  they  should  be  thought  of  in  Korea.  Indeed  some  Japanese 
have  frankly  admitted  that  if  the  Koreans  have  plotted  against  Japan,  they  have 
done  only  what  Japanese  would  do  in  similar  circumstances  and  that  Japanese  who 

13 


are  famous  for  their  patriotism  cannot  despise  others  who  manifest  the  same  spirit, 
however  strongly  they  may  deem  it  their  own  duty  to  repress  it.  We  do  not 
dogmatize  therefore  about  the  impossibility  of  a Korean  conspiracy.  But  the 
missionaries  had  absolutely  no  knowledge  of  any  such  plot,  nor  do  they  believe  that 
the  accused  Korean  Christians  knew  anything  about  one. 

After  a time,  however,  the  Japanese  authorities  announced  that  they  had 
discovered  such  a conspiracy,  that  the  specific  charge  against  the  men  and  youths 
whom  they  had  arrested  was  participation  in  a plot  to  murder  Governor  Gen- 
eral Terauchi,  and  that  under  preliminary  police  examination  the  accused  men 
had  “confessed”  their  guilt.  The  public  trial  began  June  28,  1912,  before  the  Dis- 
trict Court  of  Seoul,  the  prisoners  being  represented  by  lawyers  whom  the 
missionaries  had  assisted  them  in  employing  in  order  that  in  common  humanity 
the  poverty-stricken  Koreans  might  not  be  left  wholly  undefended.  If  they 
had  been  found  guilty  after  a fair  trial,  we  might  have  pitied  their  misguided 
zeal,  but  we  would  have  unhesitatingly  recognized  that  the  Japanese  authori- 
ties had  no  alternative  but  to  uphold  their  laws  and  punish  revolutionists.  It 
is  therefore  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  the  trial  proved  to  be  of  such  a character 
as  to  strengthen  the  grave  fears  regarding  the  methods  of  the  Japanese.  The 
methods  of  procedure  impress  a western  mind  as  peculiar.  The  lawyers  for 
the  defence  were  not  permitted  to  confer  with  their  clients  until  shortly  before 
the  public  trial,  months  after  the  prosecution  had  prepared  its  case  with  freest 
secret  access  to  the  prisoners.  When  their  lawyers  were  given  permission  to 
see  them,  the  conversations  were  in  the  presence  of  scowling  police,  so  that  the 
sorely  beset  men  could  imagine  what  their  jailers  would  do  to  them  afterwards 
if  anything  was  said  that  did  not  please  them.  The  enormously  voluminous 
records  of  the  case  were  not  made  accessible  to  the  counsel  for  the  defence 
until  it  was  too  late  to  give  them  proper  study  or  to  verify  the  allegations  of 
fact.  In  court,  all  questions  were  asked  and  witnesses  examined  through  and  at 
the  option  of  the  presiding  Judge.  The  jury  system  has  not  reached  Japan,  and  the 
whole  course  of  the  trial  showed  that  the  Judges  had  made  up  their  minds  before 
the  trial  and  that  they  were  in  effect  judges,  jury  and  prosecuting  attorneys 
combined. 

All  this,  of  course,  is  familiar  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  legal  pro- 
cedure of  most  eastern  and  of  some  western  nations — the  assumption  of  guilt  and 
“incommunicado”  of  Turkey  and  Mexico.  The  Japanese  urge  that  their 
courts  follow  French  rather  than  English  and  American  lines,  that  Japanese 
prisoners  even  when  of  high  rank  are  treated  in  the  same  way,  and  that  it  is 
not  fair  to  criticise  their  established  procedure  because  it  does  not  conform  to 
that  of  America.  I am  not  competent  to  discuss  this  question ; but  as  a layman 
in  law  I venture  to  believe  that  the  object  of  a trial  is  to  ascertain  whether  the 
accused  man  is  guilty  of  the  crime  charged,  and  that  methods  which  are  incon- 
sistent with  a fair  determination  of  this  point  are  wrong,  whether  they  are 
European  or  Asiatic.  I am  credibly  informed  that  the  Japanese  methods  are 
modeled  after  those  of  France  before  the  Republic  had  made  important  modifi- 
cations in  its  laws,  and  that  every  highly  civilized  western  nation  now  gives  an 
accused  man  a better  opportunity  to  prove  his  innocence  than  these  accused 

14 


Koreans  were  given.  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard  University,  who  recently 
visited  Korea  and  Japan,  permits  me  to  quote  the  following  from  his  letter  to 
me  of  September  4th,  1912 : 

“After  I got  to  Tokio,  and  while  the  preliminary  investigation  was  still  going  on,  I had 
several  conversations  with  eminent  Japanese  about  the  treatment  of  the  accused  Christian 
Koreans.  The  two  points  I endeavored  to  make  were,  first,  that  no  American  would  believe  on 
any  Korean  evidence  that  a single  American  missionary  was  in  the  slightest  degree  concerned 
with  the  alleged  conspiracy;  and  secondly,  that  the  Japanese  preliminary  police  investigation 
ought  to  be  modified,  and  particularly,  that  counsel  for  the  defense  ought  always  to  be  present 
during  all  stages  of  the  preliminary  investigation.  Counsel  for  the  defense  might  or  might 
not  take  part  in  the  proceedings,  but  should  invariably  be  present.  I represented  that  the 
standing  of  Japan  among  Western  nations  would  be  improved  by  judicious  modifications  of 
her  preliminary  proceedings  against  alleged  criminals.” 

Japan  wishes  to  be  considered  one  of  the  most  advanced  nations  of  the 
world,  and  if  it  expects  to  be  regarded  as  such,  it  should  so  amend  its  criminal 
law  that  it  can  withstand  criticism  that  is  based  not  on  a technical  difference  of 
method  but  on  that  essential  justice  which  mankind  has  come  to  demand  even 
for  the  lowest  of  men. 

But  the  trial  of  the  accused  Koreans  did  not  conform  even  to  the  require- 
ments of  present  Japanese  law.  The  counsel  for  the  defence  has  doubtless 
based  the  appeal  to  the  Appellate  Court  on  errors  upon  whose  validity  I am  not 
qualified  to  pass.  But  the  verbatim  reports  of  the  trial  make  three  errors 
patent  even  to  a layman. 

First:  The  testimony  of  the  accused  men  was  not  fairly  interpreted  to 
the  Judges,  who  did  not  understand  the  Korean  language.  Several  foreign 
spectators,  who  heard  the  testimony  in  open  court  and  who  are  conversant 
with  the  language,  affirm  that  the  court  interpreter  translated  only  parts  of  the 
testimony  and  either  omitted  many  of  the  accounts  of  torture  or  used  mislead- 
ing words  like  “pressure”  or  “unkindness”  so  that  the  Judges  did  not  get  a correct 
idea  of  what  the  Koreans  said.  When  the  lawyers  for  the  defence  brought 
this  fact  to  the  attention  of  the  presiding  Judge,  he  said  that  it  "was  of  no  con- 
sequence.” 

Second  : Counsel  for  the  defence  were  not  permitted  to  produce  witnesses 

who  could  have  testified  to  alibis.  A pastor  was  accused  by  the  Judge  of 
attending  a treasonable  meeting  at  a given  place  and  time  when  scores  of 
persons  could  have  testified  that  he  was  conducting  public  evangelistic  meet- 
ings in  another  town.  Other  prisoners  were  prepared  to  prove  that  they  were 
preaching  or  attending  religious  meetings  of  various  kinds  in  places  far 
removed  from  those  where  they  were  charged  by  the  police  with  plotting 
assassination.  Two  foreign  professors  in  the  Pyeng  Yang  College  were  ready 
to  swear  that  Pastor  Kil’s  son  was  in  college  on  the  date  that  his  accusers 
falsely  swore  that  he  was  in  Eui  Ju.  But  the  Court  overruled  every  effort  to 
secure  the  admission  of  such  testimony. 

Third : The  verdict  was  based  on  the  alleged  confessions  of  the  prisoners 
in  the  preliminary  examinations.  The  value  of  these  “confessions”  may  be 
estimated  by  three  facts:  First,  they  were  obtained  in  secret  examinations  by 

police  who  had  not  shown  that  they  were  overburdened  by  compassion  and 
who  had  strong  personal  motives  for  making  out  a case  that  would  justify 

15 


their  course  to  their  superiors  and  to  a public  sentiment  which  had  by  this  time 
become  aroused  both  in  Japan  and  in  other  countries.  Second,  the  "confessions” 
implicated  by  name  nineteen  American  missionaries  as  instigators  of  the  con- 
spiracy, attending  the  meetings  of  the  conspirators,  aiding  them  in  securing  revol- 
vers, and  blaming  them  for  cowardice  in  not  shooting  the  Governor  General  at  the 
appointed  time.  Principal  George  S.  McCune  was  represented  as  telling  the  plot- 
ters that  he  would  point  out  the  Governor  General  by  shaking  hands  with  him  at 
the  railway  station  in  Syen  Chyun  so  that  they  could  shoot  the  right  man,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  A.  Moffett  was  said  to  have  bitterly  upbraided  the  Koreans  for  not 
carrying  out  his  orders  to  kill.  The  character  of  all  the  missionaries  named  in  the 
"confessions”  is  so  well  known  that  these  statements  were  received  with  smiles 
of  amusement  by  all  who  know  them,  and  especially  by  those  who  remembered 
that  several  of  them  were  in  the  United  States  on  furlough  at  the  time  when  they 
were  alleged  to  be  attending  revolutionary  meetings  in  Korea.  The  assumption 
that  such  men  as  Mr.  McCune,  Dr.  Moffett,  Bishop  Harris,  and  others  like  them, 
had  guilty  knowledge  of  a plot  to  murder  Count  Terauchi  is  about  as  reasonable  as 
would  be  a charge  that  Bishop  Greer  and  Dr.  Jowett  had  planned  to  murder  the 
Governor  of  New  York.  This  part  of  the  “confessions”  was  not  taken  seriously  by 
Japanese  or  foreigners  either  in  Japan  or  in  America.  The  Japanese  authorities  in- 
stituted no  proceedings  under  it,  as  they  would  have  done  if  they  had  regarded  the 
"confessions”  as  true.  Indeed,  they  openly  said  that  they  did  not  believe  that 
the  missionaries  were  involved.  But  surely,  if  the  "confessions”  were  valid 
against  the  Koreans,  they  were  valid  against  the  Americans.  Why  then  did 
the  police  and  the  Judges  condemn  the  Koreans  and  not  the  missionaries? 
Third,  as  soon  as  the  prisoners  had  an  opportunity  to  testify  in  open  court, 
they  emphatically  repudiated  their  confessions,  in  some  cases  as  wholly  ficti- 
tious and  in  others  as  having  been  extorted  by  the  police  under  unbearable 
torture.  The  one  exception  was  a peasant  who  had  the  reputation  of  being 
crazy  and  who  justified  his  reputation  by  declaring  that  after  murdering  the 
Governor  of  Korea,  it  was  his  intention  to  proceed  to  Europe  and  kill  the 
President  of  the  Hague  Tribunal.  Many  flatly  denied  that  they  had  made 
any  “confessions”  at  all,  asserting  that  they  were  tortured  into  insensibility  and 
that  on  regaining  consciousness  they  were  told  that  they  had  admitted  things 
of  which,  they  said,  they  had  never  dreamed.  Others  declared  that  they  had  at  first 
truthfully  denied  the  charges  against  them,  but  had  finally  assented  to  them 
because  their  denials  were  followed  by  tortures  so  excruciating  that  flesh  and 
blood  could  not  endure  them.  These  statements  were  made  by  so  many 
Koreans  of  unblemished  reputation  for  veracity,  and  were  made  with  such  full 
realization  of  the  further  perils  to  which  they  exposed  themselves  from  the 
infuriated  police,  who  were  thus  publicly  accused  of  brutal  and  inhuman  treat- 
ment and  the  violation  of  their  own  laws,  that  they  carried  conviction  to  all 
the  foreigners  present  who  understood  the  Korean  language,  and  they  are 
likely  to  carry  conviction  to  all  who  read  the  testimony.  The  Japanese  police, 
of  course,  vehemently  deny  the  charge.  They  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
make  an  admission  which  would  pillory  them  before  the  world  and  probably 
result  in  their  execution  by  their  own  Government.  The  Governor  General 


16 


may  be  excused  for  believing  what  his  subordinates  tell  him  and  the  humane 
people  of  Japan  for  accepting  the  garbled  reports  and  mis-translations  which 
have  been  published  by  most  of  their  vernacular  newspapers.  But  any  impar- 
tial person  wrho  will  read  the  mass  of  testimony  which  is  now  accessible,  and 
whose  accuracy  is  corroborated  by  scores  of  reliable  persons,  is  likely  to  feel 
that  the  charge  of  obtaining  “fake”  confessions  under  torture  is  not  set  aside  by 
the  mere  denials  of  the  police  who  are  concerned,  and  that  the  Japanese  owe  it 
to  themselves  as  well  as  to  the  Koreans  to  look  more  thoroughly  into  this 
matter.  It  is  significant  that  in  spite  of  the  charges  of  elaborate  and  long  continued 
plottings  of  assassination  and  the  many  opportunities  which  the  police  admitted 
that  the  accused  men  had  to  kill  the  Governor  General,  not  a single  overt  act  was 
committed  or  even  attempted  by  the  Koreans  who  were  arraigned,  and  that  no 
evidence  of  conspiracy  was  adduced  except  the  repudiated  confessions. 

As  the  trial  proceeded,  the  hostile  and  unjudicial  attitude  of  the  Court 
became  more  and  more  apparent.  Innumerable  questions  by  the  Judges  were 
clearly  intended  to  be  traps  for  the  men  whom  they  were  trying.  When  one 
of  the  pastors  was  tripped  in  a slight  verbal  inaccuracy,  the  presiding  Judge 
loudly  called  him  “a  lying  Jesus  doctrine  pastor,”  and  peremptorily  dismissed 
him.  At  this,  the  whole  Court  laughed  heartily,  including  General  Akashi, 
who  sat  on  the  platform  behind  the  Judges  most  of  the  time.  We  cannot 
believe  that  the  Japanese  desire  the  world  to  get  the  impression  that  such 
methods  correctly  characterize  Japanese  legal  procedure  under  their  own  laws. 

Finally,  the  perversion  of  justice  became  so  gross  that  on  July  17th,  the 
counsel  for  the  defence  boldly  refused  to  proceed  and  announced  that  they 
“felt  it  proper  to  state  their  opinion  that  the  trial  was  not  being  conducted  in  a 
regular  manner  and  in  accordance  with  Art.  41  in  the  Code  of  Criminal  Proced- 
ure, for  the  honor  of  the  Imperial  Judiciary  and  with  a view  to  the  full  defence 
of  the  accused,”  and  they  therefore  applied  for  the  unseating  of  Chief  Judge 
Tsukahara  and  his  colleagues  and  for  a new  trial  under  different  judges.  The 
Court  announced  a suspension  of  the  trial,  pending  appeal  to  a higher  Court 
for  the  assignment  of  other  judges.  The  appeal  was  overruled,  and  after  some 
delay,  the  trial  was  resumed  August  23d,  but  was  brought  to  a close  in  the 
unexpectedly  short  period  of  four  days.  The  Judges  reserved  their  decision 
till  September  28th,  when  they  sentenced  105  of  the  defendants  to  terms  of 
imprisonment — six,  including  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho,  for  ten  years,  18  for  seven 
years,  39  for  six  years,  and  42  for  five  years.  One  man  was  sent  to  the  hospital 
in  a critical  condition  a few  days  before  judgment  was  pronounced,  and  his 
sentence  was  postponed.  Seventeen  others  were  acquitted,  14  of  the  latter 
being  students  of  the  Hugh  O’Neill.  Jr.,  Academy.  Among  those  who  received 
the  ten-year  sentence  was  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho,  President  of  the  Southern 
Methodist  College  at  Song-do  and  Vice-President  of  the  Korea  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
A professor  in  the  Methodist-Presbyterian  Academy  at  Pyeng  Yang,  two  profes- 
sors in  the  Presbyterian  Hugh  O’Neill,  Jr.,  Academy  at  Syen  Chyun,  and  several 
pastors  and  elders  of  churches  were  also  among  the  condemned  men.  The  sen- 
tences impress  a lay  mind  as  rather  odd.  The  prisoners  were  charged  with  treason- 
able conspiracy  involving  assassination  of  the  Governor  General.  If  they  were 


17 


guilty,  they  surely  deserved  far  heavier  sentences.  If  they  were  not  guilty, 
they  should  have  been  acquitted.  It  has  been  conjectured  that  the  sentences  were 
intended  to  “save  the  face”  of  the  Government,  or  to  be  a punishment  for  contempt 
of  court  in  so  boldly  repudiating  the  statements  of  the  police  and  objecting  to  the 
methods  of  the  Court.  But  we  cannot  believe  that  intelligent  Japanese  imagine 
that  “face”  is  “saved”  by  miscarriage  of  justice,  or  that  contempt  of  court  is  com- 
mitted when  accused  men  exercise  their  legal  right  of  self-justification. 

We  should  not  do  the  Japanese  the  injustice  of  believing  that  this  is  an 
issue  between  Koreans  and  the  whole  Japanese  nation  and  that  foreigners  are 
the  only  ones  who  see  the  unwisdom  of  the  high-handed  course  of  the  military 
party  and  of  the  lower  Court  which  has  sustained  it.  I have  already  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  civil  party  among  the  Japanese  stands  for  as 
humane  and  enlightened  treatment  of  the  Koreans  as  any  American  could  ask. 
This  party  includes  large  numbers  of  the  best  Japanese  in  both  public  and 
private  life.  The  intelligent  and  progressive  Japanese  whom  I have  personally 
met  impress  me  as  gentlemen  who  would  be  incapable  of  such  wrong  doing  as 
has  been  disclosed  in  Korea,  however  much  they  may  feel  officially  obliged  to 
extenuate  it.  Some  Japanese  of  high  character  have  frankly  lamented  in 
private  conversation  with  missionaries  that  they  are  “greatly  distressed  over 
the  conduct  of  the  trial”  and  “utterly  ashamed  of  the  affair.”  While  sensa- 
tional Japanese  newspapers  have  conveyed  the  impression  to  their  readers  that 
the  honor  of  Japan  has  been  impugned  by  prejudiced  foreigners,  that  the  mis- 
sionaries in  Korea  are  enemies  of  Japan  who  are  seriously  embarrassing  the 
Government,  that  the  Christian  Churches  are  breeding  grounds  of  revolt,  and 
that  missionaries  were  the  real  instigators  of  a nefarious  plot  to  murder  the 
Governor  General ; others  have  taken  the  contrary  view  with  vigor  and  plain- 
ness of  speech.  The  severest  arraignment  of  the  military  policy  in  Korea  that 
I have  read  anywhere  is  from  Japanese  papers.  Witness  the  following  from 
the  Shin  Nippon : 

“Count  Terauchi  is  trying  by  every  means  to  crush  the  rising  of  the  native  Koreans 
against  his  administration,  even  at  the  expense  of  his  countrymen’s  interests  in  the  peninsula. 
His  press  censorship,  espionage  policy,  and  factory  legislation  were  all  due  to  his  fear  of  a 
rising  of  the  Koreans.  But  the  present  is  not  a time  to  oppress  Korea  with  force,  but  to 

assimilate  the  Koreans  to  the  Japanese  by  good  administration The  Governor 

General’s  desire  is  to  make  the  peninsula  one  big  fortress,  and  he  seems  to  regard  all  those 
engaged  in  industrial  or  commercial  work  in  Korea  as  mere  camp  followers  within  the  walls 
of  the  barracks.”1 

A Japanese  Christian  minister,  the  Rev.  George  Shigetsugu  Murata, 
writes  an  article  in  The  Oriental  Review,  for  October,  1912,  in  which,  after 
making  some  criticisms  upon  the  missionaries  and  Korean  Christians,  he 
frankly  adds : 

“Moreover  it  is  not  only  Koreans  who  make  mistakes.  A few  of  the  Japanese  low  class 
officials  and  gendarmery  are  also  guilty  of  mistakes.  When  I was  in  Korea,  a company  of 
Japanese  soldiers  burnt  down  a Christian  church  from  a mere  fit  of  passion.  On  another 
occasion,  a party  of  soldiers  entered  a church  during  a prayer-meeting  and  demanded  lodging. 
When  asked  to  wait  till  the  end  of  the  service,  they  drove  out  the  congregation  at  the  end  of 
bayonets,  and  occupied  the  church  for  the  night.  A drunken  soldier  forced  his  way  into  the 

Translated  from  the  China  Press,  June  21,  1912. 


18 


house  of  Dr.  W.  A.  Noble,  a missionary  friend  of  mine,  without  the  slightest  reason  for  so 
doing.  These  acts  caused  just  criticism  against  the  Japanese  officials.” 

No  difficulty  was  experienced  in  employing  Japanese  lawyers  for  the  defence, 
Mr.  Ozawa  and  Mr.  Ogawa,  eminent  attorneys  of  Tokyo  and  the  first  named  for- 
merly a member  of  the  Imperial  Diet.  Their  addresses  to  the  Court  bristle  with 
stronger  denunciations  than  any  foreigner  has  employed.  Making  all  due 
allowance  for  the  professional  duty  which  leads  a lawyer  to  make  the  best  case 
that  he  can  for  his  client,  it  is  not  without  significance  that  these  able  Japanese 
attorneys,  according  to  authentic  reports  of  men  who  heard  them,  openly 
declared  that  the  section  of  the  criminal  code  under  which  the  Koreans  were  tried 
is  archaic,  barbaric  and  uncivilized ; that  while  the  defendants  were  indicted  for 
conspiracy  to  commit  murder,  the  prosecution’s  case  was  a mere  attempt  to  convict 
them  for  having  once  entertained  political  opinions  antagonistic  to  Japan;  that  the 
unreliability  of  the  confessions  of  the  prisoners  was  clearly  established  by  the 
police,  by  the  prosecution  and  by  the  Court  itself;  that  if  the  confessions  possess 
any  value,  the  police  should  be  among  the  prisoners,  and  that  instead,  they  still  re- 
main in  office,  living  witnesses  that  the  prosecution  does  not  believe  its  own  testi- 
mony; that  the  confessions  overflow  with  references  to  American  missionaries  as 
abettors  and  instigators,  but  that  if  the  confessions  were  accepted  as  evidence, 
certainly  the  foreigners  should  have  been  indicted,  particularly  Messrs. 
McCune  and  Moffett,  who  are  pictured  as  the  real  leaders  of  the  conspiracy 
despite  the  fact  that  Dr.  Moffett  was  in  America  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  at 
which  he  was  alleged  to  have  advised  the  assassination;  that  the  prosecution’s 
contention  that  the  Court  should  accept  some  portion  of  the  confessions  and 
dismiss  others  was  simply  ridiculous  and  reveals  the  weakness  of  the  whole 
case;  that  the  Court  itself  proved  the  untrustworthiness  of  the  confessions  by 
calling  for  railway  statistics  which  showed  only  nine  passengers  from  Chang-ju 
to  Syen-Chyun  on  December  27th  when  the  confessions  declared  that  150 
plotters  made  the  trip  to  kill  Count  Terauchi  at  the  latter  station ; that  it  was  a 
perversion  of  justice  not  to  allow  Baron  Yun  Chi  Ho  to  summon  witnesses  to 
establish  his  alibi,  as  there  was  indisputable  evidence  that  he  was  at  Song-do 
upon  the  dates  the  prosecution  charged  he  met  the  other  plotters  at  Seoul ; that 
even  if  the  confessions  were  accepted  at  their  face  value,  there  was  nothing 
more  to  the  case  than  that  some  persons  had  dreamed  foolish  dreams  which 
they  voluntarily  abandoned  when  the  time  for  action  came;  that  if  any  persons 
ever  entertained  the  idea  of  assassinating  anybody,  they  actually  did  nothing ; that 
the  alleged  plot  at  best  was  childish  and  laughable,  unworthy  of  serious  considera- 
tion; and  that  while  the  Constitution  guarantees  religious  liberty,  there  is  evidence 
from  the  records  in  this  case  that  the  Administration  was  oppressing  men  on 
account  of  their  belief,  whatever  may  be  said  of  other  matters. 

The  Jiji  Shimpo,  a very  influential  Tokyo  daily  paper,  recently  published  an 
article  which  included  the  following  criticism  of  the  trial  Court:1 

“What  has  struck  us  as  the  most  regrettable  feature  in  the  trial  of  this  case  is  that  the 
Court  was  somewhat  niggardly  in  granting  the  requests  of  counsel  for  the  examination  of 
evidence  and  witnesses.  Only  a small  fraction  of  these  applications  was  permitted.  . 

'Translation  in  The  Japan  Advertiser  of  Oct.  1,  1912. 


19 


Tt  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  trial  of  this  case  has  been  attended  with  most  careless 
examination  of  the  evidence  which  is  a very  important  factor  in  determining  the  truth  of 
offences  alleged.  In  a case  of  so  much  importance  as  this  no  possible  efforts  should  have  been 
spared  to  make  the  accused  and  the  public  thoroughly  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  trial, 
not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  the  prisoners  themselves  as  for  the  credit  and  dignity  of  the 
judiciary  of  Japan,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  people  at  present  on 
the  watch  to  find  flaws  in  the  administrative  methods  of  the  Government-General.  The  Court 
placed  too  much  credence  in  the  confessions  of  the  accused  and  displayed  a surprising  callous- 
ness as  regards  the  investigation  of  evidence.  For,  as  regards  the  summoning  of  witnesses,  it 
was  confined  to  one  railway  official  who  was  interrogated  as  to  the  number  of  passengers  at 
those  stations  where  the  plot  was  to  have  been  put  into  effect.  The  Court  had  utterly  rejected 
the  proposal  for  summoning  the  Inspector  General  of  the  Police  who  had  such  close  connection 
with  the  previous  confessions  of  the  prisoners  in  which  the  Court  insisted  on  putting  so  much 
faith. 

“It  need  not  be  said  that  the  mental  horizon  of  the  judiciary  is  very  narrow  and  that  they 
can  hardly  see  an  important  case  in  its  clear  and  far-reaching  light.  Those  who  have  had 
occasion  to  study  the  attitude  of  the  judiciary  will  acknowledge  that  they  know  things  Korean 
well  but  little  of  what  is  going  on  in  Japan  proper  and  that  they  were  too  much  awed  by  the 
dignity  of  the  Government-General  to  remember  the  inviolable  sanctity  of  the  judicial  author- 
ity. They  seemed  to  take  little  note  of  the  serious  effect  which  their  arbitrary  carelessness 
about  important  details  is  bound  to  exercise  upon  the  dignity  of  the  home  country  and  the 
policy  of  the  central  Government.  The  life  of  the  Governor  General  is  a precious  thing,  no 
doubt,  but  since  the  case  is  one  of  attempted  murder  of  an  individual,  it  is  after  all  the  question 
of  a private  man  and  without  any  serious  political  significance.  That  the  Court  deliberately 
involved  in  the  affair  many  young  people  of  shallow  thoughts  and  weak  characters  and  dealt 
with  them  in  such  a summary  manner  must  make  one  question  which  is  the  more  important 
of  the  two,  the  safety  of  the  Governor  General  or  the  judicial  authority  of  the  Empire. 

“If  the  confessions  of  the  prisoners  made  in  the  course  of  the  police  examinations  were 
absolutely  authentic,  minor  failings  in  the  conduct  of  the  public  trial  might  have  been  passed 
over:  but  there  was  something  in  these  confessions  that  was  very  suspicious.  The  danger  of 
basing  judgment  solely  upon  the  confessions  of  the  accused  is  universally  acknowledged  and 
yet  the  Korean  Court  was  exclusively  guided  by  the  confessions  of  the  accused  in  establishing 
their  guilt.  According  to  the  opinion  of  experts  their  confessions  were  a mixture  of  truth 
and  lies,  which  is  probably  a correct  estimate. 

“All  this  prejudice  and  narrow-minded  dealing  of  the  Court  was  due  undoubtedly  to  the 
fact  that  the  Court  had  too  much  fear  of  the  Government-General  to  assert  the  true  dignity 
and  inviolability  of  the  judicial  administration.” 

Foreigners  therefore  should  not  imagine  that  they  are  alone  in  questioning 
the  justice  of  present  Japanese  methods  in  Korea  and  they  may  be  the  more 
encouraged  to  hope  that  the  Japanese  themselves  will  in  time  rightly  settle 
the  questions  at  issue.  We  may  count  upon  a healthy  public  sentiment  among  a 
large  number  of  Japanese  who  are  as  desirous  as  any  one  that  a just  decision  should 
be  reached  and  who  do  not  hesitate  to  censure  wrong  doing.  We  are  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  high-minded  Japanese  of  our  acquaintance  are  as  glad  as  we  are 
that  on  October  1st  the  condemned  men  appealed  to  the  Appellate  Court  so  that  the 
Japanese  will  have  opportunity  to  vindicate  their  true  position. 

We  regret  that  some  American  Christians  are  circulating  petitions  to  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  praying  him  to  grant  amnesty  to  the  condemned  men. 
Such  petitions  are  apt  to  be  interpreted  as  implying  an  admission  of  guilt,  as 
transferring  their  protest  from  the  plane  of  justice  to  that  of  mercy,  and  as 
identifying  Christian  missions  with  the  defence  of  crime.  We  are  not  asking 
consideration  for  the  accused  Korean  Christians  because  we  believe  them  to  be 


20 


guilty,  but  because  we  believe  that  their  guilt  has  not  been  reasonably  estab- 
lished. We  are  therefore  not  imploring  pardon,  but  urging  thorough  investi- 
gation. If  the  Koreans  are  guilty  as  charged,  they  should  be  punished.  We 
may  be  sorry  for  them  and  lament  their  awful  blunder  and  pathetic  lack  of 
judgment.  We  may  even  continue  to  respect  them  as  honest  and  patriotic 
men  who  sought  their  country’s  independence  in  the  only  way  that  immemorial 
tradition  had  taught  them  when  so  hopelessly  overmatched  for  open  battle. 
Admiral  Alfred  T.  Mahan,  in  a letter  to  me  on  this  subject,  writes,  and  I quote 
of  course  with  his  permission : 

“There  is  no  inherent  improbability  in  the  assertion  that  a number  of  Koreans, 
even  though  Christians,  are  conspiring  against  the  Japanese  Government.  That  any  number  of 
natives  should  combine  to  throw  off  a foreign  yoke  may  be  wholly  admirable;  and  few,  cer- 
tainly not  I,  would  condemn  the  bloodshed  that  might  follow  on  such  a course.  Political 
assassination  in  such  a cause  now  stands  on  a different  footing;  but  this  point  of  view  is  a 
recent  acquisition  of  even  European  civilization.  I am  not  wholly  sure  on  what  ground  it  can 
be  condemned  logically,  as  compared  with  open  war,  except  (1)  the  treachery  involved  and  (2) 
the  proved  general  inutility  of  such  deeds.  The  Christianity  of  Korea  is  less  than  a century 
old.  Christianity  changes  the  heart,  but  it  does  not  at  once  nor  speedily  change  the  nature. 
The  conflict  between  nature  and  grace  is  perennial.  The  Korean  nature  remains  necessarily 
Korean  and  Oriental,  and  Christianity  has  not  yet  had  for  it  the  centuries  that  have  made  its 
leaven  work  through  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America.  The  result  is  seen  in  Japan,  which 
has  adopted  European  external  methods,  but  with  what  little  effect  is  demonstrated  by  the 
procedures  in  the  trials,  if  the  account  be  substantially  correct.  The  suspicion  excited  by 
Korean  Christian  gatherings  is  not  only  natural,  but  has  been  characteristic  of  the  attitude  of 
non-Christian  governments  from  the  time  of  Rome.  Sometimes  it  has  been  well  grounded,  as 
in  the  English  Roman  Catholics  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  Men  bound  together 
by  the  close  sympathies  of  vital  religion  are  in  a state  very  favorable  to  combination  for  other 
objects,  as  for  instance  patriotic,  . . . though  I do  not  mean,  of  course,  to  imply  any 
belief  on  my  own  part  in  such  a conspiracy.” 

All  would  agree,  however,  that  if  men  conspire  to  kill  their  rulers,  they  must 
be  prepared  to  accept  the  consequences,  whether  those  consequences  prove  to  be 
reward  or  punishment.  If  amnesty  is  granted,  it  should  be  voluntarily  extended  by 
the  clemency  of  the  Emperor  and  not  demanded  as  a right  by  people  of  another 
country.  The  mission  Boards  cannot  ally  themselves  with  an  effort  to  shield  politi- 
cal offenders  from  a lawful  sentence.  But  are  the  condemned  Korean  Christians 
really  guilty?  Have  the  Churches  of  Korea  become  “hotbeds  of  revolutionary 
sentiment’’  so  that  the  police  were  justified  in  dealing  with  them  so  harshly? 
We  believe  that  these  things  have  not  yet  been  fairly  determined  by  Japanese 
law,  and  that  Mr.  Ogawa  was  right  when  he  said  that  the  methods  adopted  by 
the  Japanese  gendarmes  and  inferior  Judges  thus  far  have  virtually  placed 
Japan  on  trial  before  the  civilized  world. 

The  published  statement  of  Count  Terauchi,  Sept.  7th,1  indicates  that  he  is 
keenly  sensitive  to  the  fact  that  the  situation  has  attracted  an  attention  which 
calls  for  explanation  and  defense.  Some  of  his  observations  are  just  and  merit 
thoughtful  consideration  ; but  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  statement  as  a whole 
indicates  that  he  sees  nothing  more  in  the  matter  than  “false”  and  “malicious 
accusations  against  the  officials  of  the  Empire”  and  the  dissatisfaction  of  the 
Korean  who  “has  not  as  yet  fully  awakened  to  the  needs  and  improvements  of 
this  day”  and  who  “believes  his  personal  rights  are  being  infringed  upon” 
‘The  New  York  Sun,  Oct.  3,  1912. 


21 


"when  civilization  attempts  to  improve  his  condition.”  This  is  not  a hopeful 
attitude.  It  is  curious  to  read  Count  Terauchi’s  declaration  that  he  has  made 
"the  most  careful  inquiry  among  the  officers  of  the  military  secret  service  and 
the  police.”  In  other  words,  he  asked  the  real  offenders  whether  they  had  done 
the  things  of  which  they  were  accused,  and  when  they  virtuously  said  that  they 
had  not,  he  seriously  informs  the  world  that  the  charges  have  been  looked  into 
and  found  to  be  baseless.  One  is  reminded  of  the  experience  of  a missionary 
who  last  year  deemed  it  his  duty  to  report  to  the  chief  official  of  his  district  a 
flagrant  case  of  brutality  by  a gendarme.  In  due  time,  he  received  a courteous 
reply  stating  that  the  gendarme  had  been  asked  about  it  and  had  denied  the 
charge,  and  as  the  complaint  had  thus  been  investigated  and  found  to  be 
without  foundation,  no  further  attention  need  be  paid  to  it.  Those  of  us  who 
have  maintained  confidence  in  Count  Terauchi  as  an  enlightened  Governor 
General  who  has  been  misled  by  his  interested  subordinates  deeply  regret 
that  he  was  induced  to  affix  his  signature  to  a statement  which  it  is  difficult 
to  reconcile  with  those  sentiments  that  we  have  liked  to  believe  that  he  really 
entertains.  All  intelligent  people  know  that  the  Japanese  found  gross  abuses  in 
Korea,  an  Augean  stable  of  misgovernment,  political  corruption,  and  unsanitary 
conditions.  They  have  achieved  wonders  in  bettering  these  conditions — inaugurat- 
ing great  administrative  reforms  and  beneficial  enterprises  of  various  kinds.  We 
have  paid  high  tribute  to  this  work  in  addresses  which  many  Japanese  have  heard 
and  in  published  writings  which  some  influential  Japanese  have  told  us  that  they 
have  read.  They  know  that  we  are  not  “anti-Japanese.”  But  most  of  these  reforms, 
valuable  as  they  are,  may  be  found  in  a well-regulated  penal  colony  and  reference 
to  them  does  not  touch  the  heart  of  the  real  question  which  is  now  at  issue.  The 
Mission  Boards  may  still  say,  in  almost  the  identical  language  of  the  official  action 
of  the  Presbyterian  Board  after  receiving  Count  Terauchi’s  memorandum  of  Janu- 
ary 23d,  1912,  that  they  “have  full  confidence  in  the  good-will  of  the  Government 
in  Japan  toward  the  Korean  people  and  in  the  just  purpose  of  Count  Terauchi. 
But  the  documents  before  them,  embracing,  in  addition  to  the  papers  forwarded  by 
the  Japanese  Embassy,  many  communications  from  eye  witnesses,  awaken  concern 
which  Count  Terauchi’s  statements  do  not  allay  and  which  many  events  have 
tended  to  confirm  ; concern,  namely,  lest  the  local  gendarmes  have  pursued  a course 
of  action  which  will  have  the  effect,  not  of  suppressing  a plot  of  evil  men  against 
the  Government,  but  of  breaking  the  spirit  of  loyal  and  innocent  people  and  of 
discrediting  the  very  influences  which  have  rendered  and  would  continue  to  render 
the  best  support  to  all  Japanese  efforts  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  Korean 
people.” 

We  would  not  emphasize  the  interests  of  the  missionaries  and  Boards,  for 
our  chief  thought  is  for  the  interests  of  Koreans  and  Japanese.  Nevertheless,  we 
cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  effect  of  the  present  policy  of  the  Japanese  police  upon 
a mission  work  which  now  represents  approximately  330  foreign  missionaries,  962 
schools,  a medical  college,  a nurses’  training  school,  thirteen  hospitals,  eighteen 
dispensaries,  an  orphanage,  a school  for  the  blind,  a leper  asylum,  a printing 
press,  500  churches,  a Christian  community  of  250,000,  property  worth  approxi- 
mately a million  dollars,  and  an  annual  expenditure  of  over  $250,000.  This 

22 


extensive  work  is  being  injuriously  affected  by  the  reign  of  terror  which  now 
prevails  among  the  Koreans.  Properties  become  seriously  lessened  in  value  when 
conditions  are  created  which  impair  their  use  for  the  religious  purposes  for  which 
they  were  acquired.  From  a technical  viewpoint,  this  may  be  an  incidental  result 
for  which  the  Japanese  authorities  may  disclaim  responsibility.  The  Boards  do 
not,  of  course,  challenge  the  right  of  a Government  to  arrest  any  of  its  subjects 
whom  it  may  believe  to  be  guilty  of  conspiracy,  and  they  recognize  the  fact  that 
a Government,  in  dealing  with  such  persons,  cannot  take  into  account  their  relig- 
ious affiliations.  The  situation,  however,  is  none  the  less  trying  on  that  account, 
especially  when,  as  in  Syen  Chyun,  a large  academy  had  to  be  closed  for  a time ; 
when  the  private  residences  of  American  missionaries  were  surrounded  by  police 
and  ransacked  from  garret  to  cellar,  even  trunks,  drawers  and  provision  boxes  being 
opened  in  the  search  for  alleged  revolutionary  documents  and  munitions  of  war; 
and  when  missionaries  are  openly  named  and  reviled  as  direct  promoters  of  a 
revolutionary  plot  in  numerous  articles  in  the  censored  press  both  of  Korea  and 
Japan  and  in  Korean  “confessions”  which  were  specifically  accepted  as  true  in 
the  decision  of  the  Court  and  were  made  the  ground  of  a verdict  of  guilty  against 
the  Korean  prisoners.  These  missionaries  are  now  pilloried  before  the  world,  and 
while,  as  Dr.  Eliot  has  well  said,  no  American  believes  them  to  be  guilty,  and 
while  the  Japanese  authorities  are  not  proceeding  against  them,  is  it  just  to  leave 
them  under  such  reproach  in  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese  and  Korean  people,  and  in 
the  eyes  also  of  hostile  critics  anywhere  who  may  be  disposed  to  use  that  court 
decision  against  them? 

But  not  to  dwell  further  at  present  on  this  phase  of  the  question,  let  us  ask: 
What  can  be  done  to  remedy  the  exceedingly  unfortunate  situation  which  now 
exists?  The  Boards  frankly  recognize  that  there  are  some  things  which  they  and 
the  missionaries  can  do,  or  rather  continue  to  do:  take  special  pains  to  cultivate 
friendly  relations  with  Japanese  officials  who  are  willing  to  be  on  such  terms  with 
them ; scrupulously  respect  and  obey,  and  teach  the  Korean  Christians  to  respect 
and  obey,  the  lawfully-constituted  authorities;  rigidly  limit  their  activities  to 
religious  and  social  affairs  and  keep  themselves  and,  as  far  as  possible,  the  Korean 
Churches  wholly  apart  from  all  political  matters;  take  any  necessary  complaints 
directly  to  the  Japanese  and  not  to  the  consular  or  diplomatic  representatives  of 
their  respective  Governments — save  of  course  when  their  treaty  rights  as  American 
or  British  citizens  have  been  violated,  and  even  then  not  unless  the  violation  is 
very  serious ; restrain  any  temptation  to  the  kind  of  criticism  which  might  inflame 
public  sentiment  in  America  to  a point  that  would  affect  the  relations  of  two 
nations  which  ought  to  be  on  terms  of  mutual  good  will ; let  protest,  when  nec- 
essary, be  handled,  not  by  extreme  men  but  by  those  who  are  known  for  modera- 
tion and  judicious  consideration  of  facts  as  distinguished  from  rumors;  recognize 
the  Japanese  nation  as  the  absolute  legal  master  of  Korea  which,  on  the  whole, 
means  well  and  which  should  be  helped  and  not  hindered  in  all  its  legitimate  poli- 
cies and  methods ; and  finally,  encourage  such  relations  between  Korean  and 
Japanese  Christians  as  will  tend  to  unite  the  two  peoples  in  bonds  of  amity,  remem- 
bering that  the  Japanese  are  trying  to  amalgamate  Korea  and  Japan  and  that  they 
will  not  tolerate  any  foreign  influence  which  separates  religiously  and  educationally 


23 


peoples  whom  they  are  determined  to  unify  politically.  Korea  is  the  broad  high 
way  from  Japan  to  Manchuria,  to  China,  to  Russian  territory,  to  the  international 
opportunities  that  Japan  covets  and  the  international  dangers  that  she  fears. 
Influence  with  the  new  Chinese  Republic  is  the  ambition  of  all  the  world  powers. 
With  Russia  bordering  China  for  a vast  distance  on  the  north,  Germany  entrenched 
at  Tsing-tau,  England  occupying  Wei-hai-wei,  Shanghai  and  Hong-Kong,  and 
France  established  at  Tong-king,  the  Japanese  naturally  feel  that  an  unobstructed 
Korea  is  an  absolute  necessity  of  their  national  life  and  that  they  cannot  permit 
any  anti-Japanese  element  in  it  nor  look  with  unconcern  upon  any  organization, 
however  neutral,  which  is  not  amenable  to  their  control.  Whether  we  like  this  or 
not,  the  fact  must  be  squarely  faced.  We  are  not  dealing  with  peoples  who.  like 
Englishmen  and  Americans,  are  good-naturedly  willing  to  allow  their  subjects  to  do 
almost  anything  they  please,  short  of  open  revolt ; but  we  are  dealing  with  Asiatics 
to  whom  freedom  of  speech,  individual  liberty,  the  privilege  of  peaceable  assem- 
blage, and  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  are  comparatively  new  conceptions 
and  who  will  not  condone  in  Korea  what  Americans  indifferently  overlook  in  the 
Philippines.  The  Korea  missionary  work  and  the  Korean  Church  grew  up  and 
took  their  character  before  the  Japanese  came  to  Korea  and  when  conditions  were 
radically  different  from  what  they  are  today.  In  these  circumstances,  the  problem 
of  readjustment  of  the  Missions  and  Churches  to  the  ideas  and  methods  of  the 
new  regime  is  one  of  the  gravest  and  most  difficult  of  all  the  problems  that  the 
Korea  missionaries  and  the  Korean  Christians  have  to  solve.  This  problem  cannot 
be  ignored  or  postponed.  It  must  be  met  now,  and  met  too  with  full  recognition 
of  the  Japanese  position  and  the  Japanese  temperament  and  in  a spirit  of  Christian 
moderation  and  large  statesmanship. 

We  frankly  admit  that  that  there  are  deeply-rooted  difficulties.  Conquerors 
and  conquered  have  seldom  mingled  as  equals  anywhere  in  the  world  and 
then  only  after  the  lapse  of  many  generations.  Under  our  own  rule  in  the 
Philippine  Islands,  a wide  social  chasm  is  opening  between  Americans  and 
Filipinos,  and  the  missionaries  are  fast  becoming  the  only  class  which  associates 
with  the  people  on  terms  of  equality.  Japanese  and  Koreans  are  separated  by 
unusually  deep  racial,  linguistic,  hereditary  and  temperamental  differences,  and  by 
social  prejudices  that  are  almost  as  stubborn  as  those  which  divided  Jews  and 
Samaritans  of  old.  Now  that  the  Koreans  are  beginning  to  adopt  Japanese  dress, 
the  physical  difference  between  the  two  peoples  is  becoming  less  marked  and  of 
late  years  intermarriages  have  become  more  common.  An  eminent  Japanese  has 
recently  expressed  the  opinion  that  intermarriage  will  eventually  solve  this  prob- 
lem. But  at  present,  when  many  Japanese  are  kind  to  the  Koreans,  as  the  best 
Japanese  are,  it  is  apt  to  be  with  the  type  of  kindness  which  characterizes  a Georgia 
gentleman  towards  a negro.  The  Georgian  may  be  a friend  and  benefactor  of  the 
negro,  but  he  does  not  consider  himself  on  the  latter’s  level.  The  Korean  resents  this 
attitude  even  more  than  the  negro  does,  for  his  ancestry  is  not  one  of  slavery  and 
African  barbarism,  but  of  the  traditions  of  a proud  and  ancient  nation.  He  feels 
that  Korea  is  the  land  of  his  fathers  and  that  the  Japanese  is  an  alien  who  has  no 
right  there  except  on  the  low  plane  of  physical  force.  Is  unity  of  feeling  to  be 
reasonably  expected  in  such  circumstances  ? It  is  notorious  that  the  white  man  the 


24 


world  over  deems  himself  superior  to  men  of  other  races,  and  that  even  missionaries 
have  not  always  succeeded  in  preventing  the  development  of  social  cleavage 
between  their  own  families  and  native  Christians.  We  should  therefore  be  slow 
to  criticise  the  Japanese  for  an  attitude  which  we  also  have  to  struggle  to  overcome. 

Those  of  us  who  are  familiar  with  missionary  conditions  are  aware  that  dif- 
ficulties inhere  even  in  so  apparently  simply  a proposal  as  a closer  amalgamation 
of  the  missionaries  of  Japan  and  Korea.  “Are  they  not  American  and  British 
Christians  ?”  the  reader  may  ask  in  amazement.  They  are,  and  exceptionally  able, 
consecrated  and  high-minded  Christians  who  earnestly  wish  to  aid  in  solving  the 
difficult  problems  that  have  developed.  But  they  are  also  human  beings,  and  even 
grace  does  not  wholly  change  the  universal  fact  that  human  beings  are  more  or 
less  unconsciously  influenced  by  their  environment,  the  interests  of  their  local 
work,  and  the  points  of  view  which  their  distinctive  situation  creates.  If  differ- 
ences develop  between  Japanese  and  Koreans,  the  missionaries  in  Japan — living 
among  Japanese,  on  friendly  personal  terms  with  them,  speaking  their  language, 
and  dependent  upon  their  good  will  for  the  success  of  the  work — naturally  see 
the  Japanese  side  more  clearly  than  they  see  the  Korean,  and  as  naturally  too  see 
more  clearly  the  effects  upon  the  Japanese  of  anything  that  the  Korea  missionaries 
may  say  or  do.  The  Korea  missionaries,  in  turn,  are  in  precisely  the  same  relation 
to  the  Koreans,  who  consider  themselves  an  oppressed  and  abused  people,  and 
the  Korea  missionaries  are  in  a position  to  know  more  intimately  what  the  Japanese 
police  are  really  doing  in  Korea  and  what  the  effect  is  upon  the  Korean  Christians. 
Varying  national  conditions,  too,  have  necessarily  led  to  the  development  of  mis- 
sionary work  along  different  lines,  not  only  as  to  the  particular  kind  of  work  but 
as  to  the  relation  of  the  missionary  to  the  native  Churches.  The  missionaries  in 
each  country  have  felt  that  the  character  and  trend  of  the  native  mind  with  which 
they  had  to  deal  called  for  special  emphasis  upon  certain  theological  doctrines, 
which,  while  not  fundamentally  at  variance  with,  were  nevertheless  different  from 
the  equally  evangelical  doctrines  that  the  other  body  of  missionaries  were 
emphasizing.  The  range  of  New  Testament  teaching  is  wide,  and  each  national 
group  of  Christians,  like  each  individual  believer,  instinctively  appropriates  the 
truths  which  impress  him  as  best  adapted  to  his  needs.  The  oppressed,  despairing, 
poverty-stricken,  emotional  Korean  approaches  Christ  from  a different  angle  than 
the  proud,  martial,  ambitious  and  all-conquering  Japanese.  Korean  and  Japanese 
types  of  Christianity  are,  therefore,  as  different  as  the  German  Moravian  and 
American  Presbyterian  types ; and  the  missionaries  in  each  country,  even  of  the 
same  communions,  have  been  more  or  less  unconsciously  moulded  accordingly. 

The  obstacles  to  unity  of  feeling  are  therefore  formidable.  But  Christian  men 
should  tactfully  but  firmly  refuse  to  accept  such  obstacles  as  conclusive,  just  as  their 
Lord  refused  to  accept  the  distinction  between  Jews  and  Samaritans  and  the  equally 
radical  distinction  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  just  as  Christians  at  home  are 
beginning  to  feel  that  they  cannot  accept  their  present  sectarian  divisions  as  final. 
“God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,”  Peter  was  told  in  a memorable  experience.  The 
foreign  missionary  enterprise  stands,  among  other  things,  for  the  dissolving  of  such 
prejudices  and  the  obliteration  of  artificial  differences  that  hinder  the  work 
of  God  in  the  world.  The  Christian  who  has  entered  into  the  spirit  of  Jesus  will 

25 


not  permit  himself  to  be  dominated  by  a racial  prejudice  which  would  take  him  off 
the  Christian  platform  and  place  him  where  Jonah  stood  when  God  punished  him. 
If  it  be  said  that  the  Koreans  and  Japanese  cannot  be  brought  together,  we  reply 
in  the  words  of  inspiration : “With  men  this  is  impossible,  but  with  God  all  things 
are  possible.”  “And  we  are  co-workers  together  with  God.”  That  is  what  we 
are  in  Korea  for. 

There  is  also  something  that  the  Japanese  can  do:  seek  a better  knowledge  of 
what  the  missionaries  and  Churches  really  are  and  are  doing ; study  the  beneficial 
changes  that  Christianity  has  wrought  in  the  lives  of  the  people;  realize  that  good 
men  who  try  to  conform  their  lives  to  the  teachings  of  Christ  are  never  a hindrance 
to  the  State  but  are  on  the  contrary  an  asset  of  enormous  value ; consider  that  a mis- 
sionary’s criticism  of  injustice  on  the  part  of  some  Japanese  is  not  to  be  construed 
as  antagonism  to  Japan  as  a nation  or  a reflection  upon  its  honor;  and,  above  all, 
cease  to  deal  with  the  Korean  Christians  through  the  kind  of  gendarmes  and  judges 
that  have  so  intensified  the  present  trouble  and  perverted  the  wise  policy  of  Prince 
Ito  and  the  good  intentions  of  the  Japanese  people  into  a policy  of  espionage  and 
intimidation.  The  situation  in  Korea  undoubtedly  requires  a firm  government ; 
but  the  firmness  should  be  that  of  modern  statesmanship  and  not  that  of  a feudalism 
which  would  reproduce  in  Korea  conditions  which  the  Japanese  abolished  in 
Japan  more  than  a generation  ago.  Americans,  who  remember  with  shame  how 
their  own  local  officials  once  treated  the  Indians  and  the  conquered  Southern 
people  after  the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  may  humbly  hope  that  the 
Japanese  will  learn  from  our  bitter  experience  that  the  soldier’s  rifle  and  the 
policeman’s  club  do  not  make  loyal  citizens  out  of  a defeated  people. 

Meantime,  all  concerned  should  remember  that  the  Appellate  Court  has  not 
yet  passed  on  the  appeal  of  the  convicted  men,  and  that  when  it  does  so,  if  its 
decision  should  be  unsatisfactory,  the  Supreme  Court  remains  as  the  tribunal  of 
final  resort.  The  case  is  still,  therefore,  in  process  of  adjudication  so  that  the 
resources  of  Japanese  law  have  not  been  exhausted.  The  criticism  that  has  thus 
far  been  made  was  to  have  been  expected.  In  this  age  of  international  knowledge 
and  humane  sympathies,  the  Japanese  military  party  could  not  rightfully  expect 
to  escape  publicity  and  protest.  It  is  well  that  public  interest  has  been  aroused  in 
this  matter.  It  will  be  helpful  to  the  best  element  among  the  Japanese  themselves 
who,  as  far  as  they  have  learned  of  the  case,  are  believed  to  be  not  a little  distressed 
by  the  course  of  the  military  police ; who  are  sincerely  trying  to  have  it  changed 
both  for  the  good  of  Korea  and  the  honor  of  Japan ; and  who  may  not  be  adverse  to 
the  re-enforcement  which  the  public  sentiment  of  the  civilized  world  is  now  giving 
them.  The  fact  should  be  brought  into  strong  relief  that  thus  far  the  Japanese 
Government  and  people  have  not  had  adequate  opportunity  to  know  the  real  state 
of  affairs  in  Korea.  Reports  to  Tokyo  have  been  drawn  by  the  officials  who  are 
concerned  in  defending  their  course,  and  newspaper  accounts  have  been  rigidly 
censored  as  far  as  the  Seoul  authorities  could  reach.  The  Japanese  editor  of  the 
Fukuin  Shimpo,  in  the  editorial  of  September  12,  1912,  already  referred  to,  writes: 

“There  are  many  regrettable  features  in  this  affair,  most  especially  the  following:  No 
detailed  reports  of  the  trial  were  published  in  the  Japanese  papers.  Some  of  the  accused 
testified  that  they  had  been  tortured  and  made  other  extremely  damaging  statements  in  their 


2G 


defense.  Ordinarily  such  things  would  be  reported  in  detail  by  the  Tokyo  papers  first,  and  by 
the  papers  throughout  the  country,  but  absolutely  nothing  was  published.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  there  is  no  convenient  means  of  knowing  the  case  except  The  Chronicle  of  Kobe,  and 
The  Japan  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser  of  Yokohama  (English  newspapers).  What  is 
the  reason  for  the  inadequacy  of  the  reports  of  the  Japanese  papers  on  a matter  of  such 
importance  that  the  whole  Japanese  nation  ought  to  be  thoroughly  informed  on  the 
situation?  ....  Some  say  it  is  because  the  reporters  of  the  present  are  all  agents  of  a 
certain  official  who  manipulates  their  correspondence  at  will.  Whether  this  is  true  we  do  not 
know,  but  at  any  rate  such  tactics  defeat  their  own  purpose  and  only  serve  to  invite  suspicion, 
doing  harm  beyond  expectation  even  to  the  extent  of  national  loss.  But  whatever  the  explana- 
tion, the  Japanese  people  have  not  been  given  any  proper  instruments  of  communication  in 
the  Korean  Plot  Case.1  In  a sense,  the  public  trial  in  this  case  has  been  just  like  a secret 
investigation.  This  we  regard  as  one  of  the  most  regrettable  features  of  the  case.  In  this  we 
probably  voice  the  sentiments  of  those  who  have  followed  the  references  to  the  Korean  Plot 

Case  in  the  papers  published  in  Japan,  both  Japanese  and  foreign This  is  a proper 

time  to  sift  these  tales  of  secret  police  torture  to  the  very  bottom.  It  is  highly  important  that 
this  matter  be  cleared  up.  If  such  hateful  practices  exist,  they  should  be  thoroughly  exposed, 
whatever  shame  may  be  involved,  and  a thoroughgoing  reform  must  be  brought  about.  In 
our  opinion,  it  is  of  extreme  importance  not  only  to  bring  to  trial  those  accused  of  the  plot 
but  also  to  investigate  this  charge  of  torture.  If  this  question  is  buried  while  still  unanswered, 
it  will  be  a great  misfortune  for  the  country.” 

The  real  friends  of  Japan  at  this  juncture  are  not  those  who  attempt  to  deny 
or  extenuate  facts  which  are  now  as  notorious  as  the  even  more  deplorable  facts 
which  in  a former  generation  led  to  the  characterization  of  American  treatment  of 
the  Indians  as  “A  Century  of  Dishonor,”  but  they  are  those  who  frankly  tell  their 
Japanese  friends  that  “the  recent  course  of  the  Gendarmerie  in  dealing  with  the 
people  of  Korea  has  awakened  grave  misgivings  as  to  its  justice,  its  effect  upon  the 
unhappy  Koreans,  and  also  upon  that  reputation  for  the  humane  and  enlightened 
rule  of  a subject  race  which  the  Japanese  have  shown  that  they  rightly  value.”2  If 
the  Koreans  have  really  been  plotting  revolution,  harsh  treatment  will  make  them 
plot  the  more  and  will  win  for  them  world-wide  sympathy.  If  they  have  not  been 
plotting,  such  treatment  will  either  stir  them  to  a fury  of  desperation  which  will 
make  them  dangerous  enemies,  or  so  crush  the  spirit  of  a sensitive  and  ancient 
people  that  the  indignant  protest  of  the  American  and  British  peoples  may 
injuriously  affect  those  relations  of  mutual  respect  and  good  will  which  have 
hitherto  existed  between  the  nations  and  whose  continuation  we  so  ardently  desire. 
Japan  undoubtedly  has  a hard  task  in  Korea,  and  the  mission  Boards  earnestly 
desire  to  avoid  anything  that  might  make  it  more  difficult.  We  cordially  recog- 
nize the  many  splendid  things  that  the  Japanese  have  done,  and  we  lament  only 
that  this  unfortunate  affair  has  done  so  much  to  prevent  them  from  exerting  their 
full  beneficent  effect.  We  are  convinced,  as  we  have  been  from  the  beginning, 
that  as  soon  as  the  central  Government  in  Tokyo  and  the  Japanese  nation  as  a 
whole  know  how  their  true  purposes  regarding  the  Koreans  have  been  distorted 
by  the  Gendarmerie  and  the  Judges  of  the  lower  Court  in  Seoul,  they  will  take  such 
action  as  will  prove  to  all  the  world  that  the  name  of  the  era  of  the  late  Emperor, 
Meiji  (Enlightenment),  and  that  of  the  new  Emperor,  Taisho  (Righteousness), 
are  not  empty  names,  but  that  they  represent  the  real  spirit  and  intent  of  the 
Japanese  nation  toward  a subject  race. 

‘Italics  mine. 

‘From  reply  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  to  Count  Terauchi’s  memorandum  of  January  23. 

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